Applications of blockchain in ensuring the security and privacy of electronic health record systems: A survey

Shuyun Shi; Debiao He; Li Li; Neeraj Kumar; Muhammad Khurram Khan; Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo

doi:10.1016/j.cose.2020.101966

Applications of blockchain in ensuring the security and privacy of electronic health record systems: A survey

Comput Secur. 2020 Oct:97:101966. doi: 10.1016/j.cose.2020.101966. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

Authors

Shuyun Shi^{1

2}, Debiao He^{1

2}, Li Li¹, Neeraj Kumar^{3

4}, Muhammad Khurram Khan⁵, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory of Trusted Software, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, China.
³ Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, India.
⁴ Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Asia University, Taiwan.
⁵ Center of Excellence in Information Assurance, College of Computer & Information Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA.

Abstract

Due to the popularity of blockchain, there have been many proposed applications of blockchain in the healthcare sector, such as electronic health record (EHR) systems. Therefore, in this paper we perform a systematic literature review of blockchain approaches designed for EHR systems, focusing only on the security and privacy aspects. As part of the review, we introduce relevant background knowledge relating to both EHR systems and blockchain, prior to investigating the (potential) applications of blockchain in EHR systems. We also identify a number of research challenges and opportunities.

Keywords: Blockchain; Electronic health record system; Healthcare; Privacy; Security.

Publication types

Review