Blockchain in healthcare applications: Research challenges and opportunities

Blockchain has a range of built-in features, such as distributed ledger, decentralized storage, authentication, security, and immutability, and has moved beyond hype to practical applications in industry sectors such as Healthcare. Blockchain applications in the healthcare sector generally require m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of network and computer applications Vol. 135; pp. 62 - 75
Main Authors: McGhin, Thomas, Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond, Liu, Charles Zhechao, He, Debiao
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2019
Subjects:
Authentication
Blockchain
Healthcare industry
IoT
Survey
Vulnerabilities
Wireless
Wireless
Survey
Healthcare industry
Authentication
Blockchain
Vulnerabilities
IoT
ISSN:1084-8045, 1095-8592
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Blockchain has a range of built-in features, such as distributed ledger, decentralized storage, authentication, security, and immutability, and has moved beyond hype to practical applications in industry sectors such as Healthcare. Blockchain applications in the healthcare sector generally require more stringent authentication, interoperability, and record sharing requirements, due to exacting legal requirements, such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Building on existing blockchain technologies, researchers in both academia and industry have started to explore applications that are geared toward healthcare use. These applications include smart contracts, fraud detection, and identity verification. Even with these improvements, there are still concerns as blockchain technology has its own specific vulnerabilities and issues that need to be addressed, such as mining incentives, mining attacks, and key management. Additionally, many of the healthcare applications have unique requirements that are not addressed by many of the blockchain experiments being explored, as highlighted in this survey paper. A number of potential research opportunities are also discussed in this paper.
ISSN:1084-8045
1095-8592
DOI:10.1016/j.jnca.2019.02.027