SEMRES - A Triple Security Protected Blockchain Based Medical Record Exchange Structure

Yen-Liang Lee; Hsiu-An Lee; Chien-Yeh Hsu; Hsin-Hua Kung; Hung-Wen Chiu

doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2021.106595

SEMRES - A Triple Security Protected Blockchain Based Medical Record Exchange Structure

Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2022 Mar:215:106595. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2021.106595. Epub 2021 Dec 29.

Authors

Yen-Liang Lee¹, Hsiu-An Lee², Chien-Yeh Hsu³, Hsin-Hua Kung⁴, Hung-Wen Chiu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Internet of Things Laboratory, Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories, Tao Yuen, Taiwan. Electronic address: d610101008@tmu.edu.tw.
² National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan, Taiwan; Standards and Interoperability Lab, Smart Healthcare Center of Excellence, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Information Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: billy72325@gmail.com.
³ Standards and Interoperability Lab, Smart Healthcare Center of Excellence, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Information Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan; Master Program in Global Health and Development, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: cyhsu@ntunhs.edu.tw.
⁴ Standards and Interoperability Lab, Smart Healthcare Center of Excellence, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Information Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: hsinhuakung@gmail.com.
⁵ Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Clinical Big Data Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan. Electronic address: hwchiu@tmu.edu.tw.

Abstract

Background and objective: COVID-19, a serious infectious disease outbreak started in the end of 2019, has caused a strong impact on the overall medical system, which reflects the gap in the volume and capacity of medical services and highlights the importance of clinical data ex-change and application. The most important concerns of medical records in the medical field include data privacy, data correctness, and data security. By realizing these three goals, medical records can be made available to different hospital information systems to achieve the most complete medical care services. The privacy and protection of health data require detailed specification and usage requirements, which is particularly important for cross-agency data exchange.

Methods: This research is composed of three main modules. "Combined Encryption and Decryption Architecture", which includes the hybrid double encryption mechanism of AES and RSA, and encrypts medical records to produce "Secured Encrypted Medical Record". "Decentralize EMR Repository", which includes data decryption and an exchange mechanism. After a data transmission is completed, the content verification and data decryption process will be launched to confirm the correctness of the data and obtain the data. A blockchain architecture is used to store the hash value of the encrypted EMR, and completes the correctness verification of the EMR after transmission through the hash value.

Results: The results of this study provide an efficient triple encryption mechanism for electronic medical records. SEMRES ensures the correctness of data through the non-repudiation feature of a blockchain open ledger, and complete integrated information security protection and data verification architecture, in order that medical data can be exchanged, verified, and applied in different locations. After the patient receives medical services, the medical record is re-encrypted and verified and stored in the patient's medical record. The blockchain architecture is used to ensure the verification of non-repudiation of medical service, and finally to complete the payment for medical services.

Conclusions: The main aim of this study was to complete a security architecture for medical data, and develop a triple encryption authentication architecture to help data owners easily and securely share personal medical records with medical service personnel.

Keywords: Blockchain; Data exchange; EMR Protection; Encryption; Security.

MeSH terms

Blockchain*
COVID-19*
Computer Security
Electronic Health Records
Health Records, Personal*
Humans
SARS-CoV-2