Blockchain-Enabled Decentralized Healthcare Data Exchange: Leveraging Novel Encryption Scheme, Smart Contracts, and Ring Signatures for Enhanced Data Security and Patient Privacy

Abstract

The healthcare industry has undergone a digital transformation in recent years, with the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) becoming increasingly prevalent. While this digitization offers various advantages, concerns regarding the security and privacy of sensitive medical data have also intensified. Data breaches and cyber-attacks targeting healthcare organizations have underscored the need for robust solutions to protect patient data. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising solution due to its decentralized and immutable nature, which ensures secure and transparent data recording. This paper proposes a novel approach that combines blockchain with advanced encryption scheme and privacy protection technique to establish a secure and privacy protected medical data sharing environment. The proposed system consists of three phases such as initialization phase, data processing phase, and authentication phase. The hybrid Feistal-Shannon homomorphic encryption algorithm (HFSHE) is proposed to encrypt the medical data to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Ring signature is integrated to the system to provide additional anonymity and protect the identities of the participants involved in data transactions. In addition, the smart contract developed performs authentication checks on users, generates a time seal, and verifies the ring signature. Through this enhancement, the system becomes more resilient to both external and internal threats, enhancing overall security as well as privacy. A comprehensive security analysis is conducted to compare the proposed method's performance against existing techniques. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in safeguarding sensitive medical information within the blockchain ecosystem.