Blockchain provided effective solutions to a number of difficulties that plagued telemedicine infrastructure. The need for Blockchain healthcare solutions grew as a result of rising counterfeit pharmaceuticals, data breaches, and other key concerns. According to MarketsandMarkets, the worldwide Blockchain healthcare industry will be worth $829 million by 2023. The telemedicine industry benefits from Blockchain since it allows for secure data sharing, Personal Health Information (PHI) privacy, and verified data. Blockchain’s integration in Telemedicine provided it the boost it needed and improved its market value. According to Statista, the telemedicine market was valued at 45 billion USD in 2019, which has grown significantly and is expected to reach more than 175 billion USD by 2026.
The Integration of Blockchain with Telemedicine
Blockchain: It is a distributed ledger technology that ensures data security, brings absolute transparency to the system, and eliminates third-party interventions.
Telemedicine: It refers to the practice of providing care to patients remotely. It allows for digital video conferencing, remote patient monitoring, automatic payments, remote treatment, and other healthcare services.
Blockchain, when combined with a telemedicine system, enables a distributed architecture for managing a shared ledger of health records. Every node on the network syncs and verifies all of the data on the ledger. All of the main obstacles that exist in a telemedicine system are eliminated by Blockchain. It helps with tracing the pharmaceutical supply chain, validating patient credentials, tracking infected patients’ locations, securing health data, and other clinical tasks. Blockchain’s ability to conduct all of these tasks is due to its inherent characteristics:
| Characteristics | Description |
| Immutable | Immutability ensures the integrity of data. Digital signatures and encryption standards are used on every transaction to make all health records immutable. |
| Decentralized | Decentralization seeks to disperse control across the system, such that no single central authority has control over the data. It improves the system’s overall robustness. |
| Auditable | The Blockchain technology allows concerned authorities to track the origins and progress of pharmaceuticals across the supply chain. |
| Anonymous | To guarantee data security, Blockchain keeps the identities of participants anonymous throughout transactions. |
| Open-source access | Everyone has access to the information. Patients have access to doctors’ profiles, and doctors have access to patients’ medical information when needed. The ledger’s data is freely accessible by any authorised user. |
Digital Health Identity Registration and Authentication
Users interact with a Blockchain-based decentralised application through an intuitive user interface portal that allows them to access and share patient data in order to establish a coordinated treatment regimen. This portal verifies and authenticates the digital identities of the participants. A Registry Smart Contract is provided to keep track of the digital identities of anyone who registers with the platform. The Registry saves the phone numbers and email addresses of participants. Furthermore, the data of these users is protected by public encryption and signing keys issued at the time of registration. The following steps are the process of Digital Health Identity Registration and Authentication:
|
Steps |
Particulars |
Description |
|
1. |
User’s registration request |
By providing a verified email address, a user, such as a patient or a doctor, produces a request to register their digital identity on the portal. |
|
2. |
Request forwarded |
The portal of the decentralised application accepts the request and sends it to the server. |
|
3. |
Generate encryption keys |
The server verifies the request to ensure its legitimacy. After the request has been verified, encryption and signing keys are generated. These encryption and signing keys are then registered in the Registry Smart Contract. |
|
4. |
User accesses keys |
The server provides the option to the user for download keys. |
|
5. |
Registration response |
The user receives the registration response. |
|
6. |
Login request |
Now, the user requests to login to the portal using signing keys. |
|
7. |
Request forwarded |
The login request is sent to the server for further verification. |
|
8. |
Identity verification |
After confirming that the identity exists in the Registry Smart Contract, the server responds to the login request. |
|
9. |
Verification response |
Verification response is then sent to the server. |
|
10. |
Response forwarded and displayed |
The server forwards this response to the portal and then finally shows it to the user. |
Data Access Authorization
Authorization for data access is granted through a token-based data exchange mechanism. All the user interactions and requests are logged on data access Smart Contract. It aids in the analysis and tracking of who and when data is provided. Every authorised user’s identity is linked to custom-named access tokens, which are represented as a hierarchical object with a boolean value dependent as to whether or not access has been given or denied. The authorization is set to false and the accompanying token value is set to empty when access is denied. The data access workflow includes the following:
|
Steps |
Particulars |
Description |
|
1. |
New prescription generated |
The doctor shares a new prescription with the patient. |
|
2. |
Request forwarded |
This request is sent to the server. |
|
3. |
Request for public key |
To validate the patient’s existence, the server requests the patient’s public key. |
|
4. |
Requested key returned |
The patient’s existence is confirmed by the Registry contract, which also delivers their public key to the server. |
|
5. |
Log generated token |
The server now creates an access token for the patient and records it on the Access contract. |
|
6. |
Patient requests access |
After logging in successfully, the patient requests to access the available data and uploads a private encryption key. |
|
7. |
Request forwarded |
The request is sent to the server for further processing. |
|
8. |
Server requests for tokens |
The server requests all the tokens accessible to the patient. |
|
9. |
Requested tokens provided |
Access contract sends all the requested tokens to the server. |
|
10. |
Display links |
The server performs decryption and verification of the digital signature to obtain access tokens. The server then creates hyperlinks for the patient to access the data and asks the portal to display these links to the patient. |
In conclusion, Blockchain plays a vital role in telemedicine platforms. It is essential for data security, remote patient monitoring, micropayment automation, and fraud detection. Without Blockchain, many health-tech specialists have already acknowledged that a safe digital future is unachievable.
very interesting post!