MedBioCh: Advancing security and privacy in digital healthcare with revocable biometric systems and blockchain

The digitization of healthcare has enhanced efficiency, accessibility, and patient management but has also raised critical concerns regarding data security, privacy, and system reliability. As digital services expand, ensuring secure identity management and protecting sensitive health data from cyber threats has become paramount. Traditional centralized health systems remain vulnerable to data breaches, single points of failure, and identity theft, highlighting the need for more resilient solutions. To address these challenges, we propose MedBioCh, a Medical Access Control System Based on Biometrics and BlockChain. MedBioCh system leverages blockchain technology and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) for tamper-resistant storage and decentralized data management. It integrates biometric authentication for secure access control, ensuring privacy and identity protection. The proposed system relies on a fully secured biometric architecture through an innovative method for extracting revocable biometric features, based on Gabor filters and chaotic systems. This approach enhances the protection of biometric templates, prevents identity theft and unauthorized access, while maintaining system flexibility and adaptability. The chaotic system parameters are optimized to ensure accurate feature analysis, with attention directed toward the most distinctive traits, thereby improving authentication reliability and robustness. The effectiveness of the MedBioCh system was validated using a standard biometric dataset and implemented on the Ethereum blockchain. Experimental results show that MedBioCh system significantly improves security, fault tolerance, and scalability, mitigating the risks associated with traditional digital health systems. These improvements position MedBioCh system as a practical and effective solution for critical multi-stakeholder sectors such as healthcare, finance, and government, where data protection and integrity are of utmost importance.