Blockchain-based Electronic Patient Records for Regulated Circular Healthcare Jurisdictions

Abstract

Circular, data-driven healthcare is increasingly being considered as an effective model to provide efficient, cost-effective and sustainable healthcare services in the future. Central to this model is the service-dominant “building-block”-type provision of care services to patients, paired with the collaboration of healthcare providers through a common infrastructure. This combination enables the forming of a decentralized, holistic care cycle. Sharing of patient medical informationis pivotal towards reaching this goal; however, preserving medical record integrity and privacy, while at the same time allowing provider interoperability are often conflicting requirements. Blockchains and Smart Contracts can provide the underlying technology to support the decentralized care cycle by addressing patient privacy and medical record integrity, while simultaneously offering efficient interoperability between providers. To demonstrate how this could be achieved, a conceptual medical record access and sharing mechanism is presented which is suitable for a system operating within a regulated healthcare jurisdiction.