Login Register Cart 0
Generic placeholder image

Recent Advances in Computer Science and Communications

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 2666-2558
ISSN (Online): 2666-2566

Back
Journal Home About Journal Editorial Board Current Issue Volumes/Issues
Subscribe
Systematic Review Article

Professional Ethics, Challenges and Opportunities for Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Sector: A Systematic Review

Author(s): Keerti Singh, Charu Krishna* and Divya Kumar

Volume 17, Issue 1, 2024

Published on: 28 November, 2023

Article ID: e201123223664 Pages: 15

DOI: 10.2174/0126662558263462231020111428

Price: $65

Abstract

Background: The healthcare sector faces numerous issues, such as insurance fraud, electronic medical record management, interoperability, insecure dissemination of information, etc. The novel Blockchain technology holds tremendous potential to transform the healthcare sector by addressing these rising challenges in the industry. It provides a secure platform for storing, disseminating, and retrieving sensitive patient data and health records while preserving the ethical principles of the healthcare sector.

Method: In this study, we systematically reviewed the literature on blockchain technology in healthcare using PRISMA and highlighted how blockchain technology might promote innovation and deliver major improvements in the healthcare sector.

Result: Our goal is to examine the present status of this discipline, focusing on limits and potential advances. Queries were used to gather Scopus, PubMed, SpringerLink, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science publications that met the criteria for the selection of papers.

Conclusion: This article, thus, analyses the potential for blockchain in the healthcare industry and outlines blockchain-based products in healthcare. Our study enhances and complements prior healthcare blockchain research.

Graphical Abstract

[1]
"World Health Organization (WHO). Integrated Chronic Disease Prevention and Control", Available from: https://www.who.int/chp/about/integrated_cd/en/
[2]
World Health Organization (WHO), Global Report on Diabetes. WHO Press, World Health Organization: Geneva, 2016. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565257
[3]
A.H. Seh, "Healthcare data breaches: Insights and implications", Health Care, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 133, 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8020133]
[4]
M. Shuaib, S. Alam, and M. Shabbir, "Compliance with HIPAA and GDPR in blockchain-based electronic health record", Mater. Today Proc., p. 4, 2021.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.03.059]
[5]
S. N.-D. B. Review and undefined, "Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system", Available from: https://www.debr.io/article/21260.pdf (Accessed: Aug. 10, 2022).
[6]
J. Abou Jaoude, and R. George Saade, "Blockchain applications: Usage in different domains", IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 45360-45381, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2902501]
[7]
A.A. Monrat, O. Schelén, and K. Andersson, "A Survey of blockchain from the perspectives of applications, challenges, and opportunities", IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 117134-117151, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2936094]
[8]
E.J.D.E. Aguiar, B.S. Faiçal, and S. Paulo, "A survey of blockchain-based strategies for healthcare", ACM Comput. Surv., vol. 53, no. 2, 2020.
[9]
M. Hölbl, M. Kompara, A. Kamišalić, and L. Nemec Zlatolas, "A systematic review of the use of blockchain in healthcare", Symmetry, vol. 10, no. 10, p. 470, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/sym10100470]
[10]
K. Agrawal, M. Aggarwal, S. Tanwar, G. Sharma, P.N. Bokoro, and R. Sharma, "An extensive blockchain based applications survey: Tools, frameworks, opportunities, challenges and solutions", IEEE Access, vol. 10, no. October, pp. 116858-116906, 2022.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3219160]
[11]
M. Prokofieva, "Blockchain in healthcare", Int. J. Intell. Netw., vol. 23, pp. 1-22, 2023.
[12]
H.S. Chen, J.T. Jarrell, K.A. Carpenter, D.S. Cohen, X. Huang, and M.G. Hospital, "Blockchain in healthcare: A patient-centered model", Biomed. J. Sci. Tech. Res., vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 15017-15022, 2019.
[13]
A. Hasselgren, K. Kralevska, D. Gligoroski, S.A. Pedersen, and A. Faxvaag, "Blockchain in healthcare and health sciences: A scoping review", Int. J. Med. Inform., vol. 134, p. 104040, 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.104040]
[14]
T. McGhin, K.K.R. Choo, C.Z. Liu, and D. He, "Blockchain in healthcare applications: Research challenges and opportunities", J. Netw. Comp. Applic., vol. 135, no. 1, pp. 62-75, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2019.02.027]
[15]
A. Fusco, G. Dicuonzo, V. Dell’Atti, and M. Tatullo, "Blockchain in healthcare: Insights on COVID-19", Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, vol. 17, no. 19, p. 7167, 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197167] [PMID: 33007951]
[16]
S. Khatri, F.A. Alzahrani, M.T.J. Ansari, A. Agrawal, R. Kumar, and R.A. Khan, "A systematic analysis on blockchain integration with healthcare domain: Scope and challenges", IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 84666-84687, 2021.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3087608]
[17]
E.R.D. Villarreal, J. García-alonso, E. Moguel, J. Ariel, and H. Alegría, "Blockchain for healthcare management systems: A survey on interoperability and security", IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 5629-5652, 2023.
[18]
Z. Zheng, S. Xie, H.N. Dai, X. Chen, and H. Wang, "Blockchain challenges and opportunities: A survey", Int. J. Web Grid Serv., vol. 14, no. 4, p. 352, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJWGS.2018.095647]
[19]
G.R.E.G.N.G. Regoriou, Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data., Academic Press, 2015.
[20]
W. Mougayar, The Business Blockchain., John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2016.
[21]
"Global blockchain market size", Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1015362/worldwide-blockchain-technology-market-size/
[22]
M.A. Engelhardt, and D. Espinosa, "Hitching healthcare to the chain", An Introd. Blockchain. Technol. Healthc. Sect. Introd. Blockchain. Technol. Healthc. Sect., vol. 7, no. 10, pp. 22-35, 2017.
[23]
K. Paranjape, M. Parker, D. Houlding, and J. Car, Blockchain in healthcare todayOpen Acess J., vol. 6. no. 2, p. 2023.
[24]
"Blockchain-industry-graph", Available from: https://www.statista.com/
[25]
L. Soltanisehat, R. Alizadeh, H. Hao, K.K.R. Choo, and S. Member, "Technical, temporal, and spatial research challenges and opportunities in blockchain-based healthcare: A systematic literature review", IEEE Trans. Eng. Manage., vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 353-368, 2023.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2020.3013507]
[26]
W.J. Gordon, and C. Catalini, "Blockchain technology for healthcare: Facilitating the transition to patient-driven interoperability", Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J., vol. 16, pp. 224-230, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2018.06.003] [PMID: 30069284]
[27]
M. Swan, Blockchain Blueprint of new Economy., O'Reilly Media, 2015.
[28]
B. Matthew, "An introduction to the blockchain and its implications for libraries and medicine", Med. Ref. Serv. Q., vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 273-279, 2017.
[29]
T. Górski, "The 1+5 architectural views model in designing blockchain and it system integration solutions", Symmetry, vol. 13, no. 11, p. 2000, 2021.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/sym13112000]
[30]
J. Yli-Huumo, D. Ko, S. Choi, S. Park, and K. Smolander, "Where is current research on blockchain technology?: A systematic review", PLoS One, vol. 11, no. 10, p. e0163477, 2016.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163477] [PMID: 27695049]
[31]
J. Cunningham, and J. Ainsworth, "Enabling patient control of personal electronic health records through distributed ledger technology enabling patient control of personal electronic health records through distributed ledger technology", Medinfo, vol. 245, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-830-3-45]
[32]
A. Azaria, A. Ekblaw, T. Vieira, and A. Lippman, "MedRec: Using blockchain for medical data access and permission management", In: Conf. Open Big Data, 2016, pp. 25-30.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/OBD.2016.11]
[33]
J. Liu, X. Li, L. Ye, H. Zhang, X. Du, and M. Guizani, BPDS: A blockchain based privacy-preserving data sharing for electronic medical records2018 IEEE Glob. Commun. Conf., 2018, pp. 1-6.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2018.8647713]
[34]
C. Mistry, "MedBlock: An ai-enabled and blockchain-driven medical healthcare system for COVID-19", IEEE Int. Conf. Commun Montreal, QC, Canada, 2021, pp. 1-6.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICC42927.2021.9500397]
[35]
P. Zhang, J. White, D.C. Schmidt, G. Lenz, and S.T. Rosenbloom, "FHIRChain: Applying blockchain to securely and scalably share clinical data", Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J., vol. 16, pp. 267-278, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2018.07.004] [PMID: 30108685]
[36]
S.L. Cichosz, M.N. Stausholm, T. Kronborg, P. Vestergaard, and O. Hejlesen, "How to use blockchain for diabetes health care data and access management: An operational concept", J. Diabetes Sci. Technol., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 248-253, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1932296818790281]
[37]
H. Li, L. Zhu, M. Shen, F. Gao, X. Tao, and S. Liu, "Blockchain-based data preservation system for medical data", J. Med. Syst., pp. 1-13, 2018.
[38]
M. David, R. Irene Pimenta, F. César, L. Manuel José, G.A. José Manuel, and B. Javier, "Anonymized distributed PHR using blockchain for openness and non-repudiation guarantee", Stud. Health Technol. Inform., vol. 255, pp. 170-174, 2018.
[39]
H. Rathore, A. Mohamed, and M. Guizani, Blockchain applications for healthcare., Elsevier Inc., 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819045-6.00008-X]
[40]
M. Mettler, "Blockchain technology in healthcare: The revolution starts here", 2016 IEEE 18th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services., Healthcom: Munich, Germany, 2016, pp. 1-3. Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7749510/ (Accessed: Aug. 03, 2022).
[41]
"Medicalchain", Whitepaper, vol. 21, pp. 1-98, 2018.
[42]
T. Nugent, D. Upton, and M. Cimpoesu, "Improving data transparency in clinical trials using blockchain smart contracts", F1000 Res., vol. 5, p. 2541, 2016.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.9756.1] [PMID: 28357041]
[43]
F.A.I.C.A. Vitaletti, "The role of blockchain and IoT in recruiting participants for digital clinical trials", 25th Int. Conf. Software, Telecommun. Comput. Networks, 2017.
[44]
D.M. Maslove, J. Klein, K. Brohman, and P. Martin, "Using blockchain technology to manage clinical trials data: A proof-of-concept study", JMIR Med. Inform., vol. 6, no. 4, p. e11949, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/11949] [PMID: 30578196]
[45]
R Govardhan, V R Jagadeesh, S M. Lakshminath, S. Linganand, and J. Dr. Nagaraja, "How blockchain technology can change medicine", J. Res. Appl.Sci. Eng. Technol., 2023.
[46]
E. Funk, J. Riddell, F. Ankel, and D. Cabrera, "Blockchain technology: A data framework to improve validity, trust, and accountability of information exchange in health professions education", Acad. Med., vol. 93, no. 12, pp. 1791-1794, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002326] [PMID: 29901658]
[47]
X. Liang, J. Zhao, S. Shetty, J. Liu, and D. Li, "Integrating blockchain for data sharing and collaboration in mobile healthcare applications", In IEEE 28th Annu. Int. Symp. Pers. Indoor, Mob. Radio Commun., 2017.
[48]
M. Saravanan, R. Shubha, A. Mary Marks, and V. Iyer, "SMEAD: A secured mobile enabled assisting device for diabetics monitoring", In IEEE Int. Conf. Adv. Networks Telecommun. Syst., 2017.
[49]
D. Ichikawa, M. Kashiyama, and T. Ueno, "Tamper-resistant mobile health using blockchain technology", JMIR Mhealth Uhealth, vol. 5, no. 7, p. e111, 2017.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.7938] [PMID: 28747296]
[50]
K.N. Griggs, O. Ossipova, C.P. Kohlios, A.N. Baccarini, E.A. Howson, and T. Hayajneh, "Healthcare blockchain system using smart contracts for secure automated remote patient monitoring", J. Med. Syst., vol. 42, no. 7, p. 130, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10916-018-0982-x] [PMID: 29876661]
[51]
K. Yaeger, M. Martini, J. Rasouli, and A. Costa, "Emerging blockchain technology solutions for modern healthcare infrastructure", J. Sci. Inno. in Med., vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-7, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.29024/jsim.7]
[52]
J-T. Lorenz, B. Münstermann, M. Higginson, P.B. Olesen, N. Bohlken, and V. Ricciardi, Blockchain in insurance: Opportunity or threat?, 2016, pp. 1-9. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/blockchain-in-insurance-opportunity-or-threat
[53]
T. Bocek, B.B. Rodrigues, T. Strasser, and B. Stiller, "Blockchains everywhere - a use-case of blockchains in the pharma supply-chain", In IFIP/IEEE Symp. Integr. Netw. Serv. Manag. 08-12 May 2017, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 772-777
[54]
M. Mettler, Blockchain technology in healthcare: The revolution starts hereIn 2016 IEEE 18th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom) 14-16 September 2016, Munich, Germany, pp. 1-3
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HealthCom.2016.7749510]
[55]
Available from: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/organtee-the-first-free-online-donor-registration#/ (Accessed on Mar 27 2018).
[56]
L. Zhou, L. Wang, and Y. Sun, "MIStore: A blockchain-based medical insurance storage system", J. Med. Syst., vol. 42, no. 8, p. 149, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10916-018-0996-4] [PMID: 29968202]
[57]
V. Gatteschi, F. Lamberti, C. Demartini, C. Pranteda, and V. Santamaría, "Blockchain and smart contracts for insurance: Is the technology mature enough?", Future Internet, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 20, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fi10020020]
[58]
W.L.S. Angraal, and M.K. Harlan, "Blockchain technology: Applications in health care", Circ. Cardiovasc. Qual. Outcomes, 2021.
[59]
M.N. Kamel Boulos, J.T. Wilson, and K.A. Clauson, "Geospatial blockchain: Promises, challenges, and scenarios in health and healthcare", Int. J. Health Geogr., vol. 17, no. 1, p. 25, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12942-018-0144-x] [PMID: 29973196]
[60]
I. Kotsiuba, A. Velykzhanin, Y. Yanovich, I. Skarga-Bandurova, Y. Dyachenko, and V. Zhygulin, "Decentralized e-health architecture for boosting healthcare analytics", In Second World Conf. Smart Trends Syst. Secur. Sustain., 2018 30-31 October 2018, London, UK, pp. 113-118
[61]
J.T. Shae Zonyin, "Transform blockchain into distributed parallel computing architecture for precision medicine", In EEE 38th Int. Conf. Distrib. Comput. Syst. 02-06 July 2018, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1290- 1299
[62]
P. Mamoshina, L. Ojomoko, Y. Yanovich, A. Ostrovski, A. Botezatu, P. Prikhodko, E. Izumchenko, A. Aliper, K. Romantsov, A. Zhebrak, I.O. Ogu, and A. Zhavoronkov, "Converging blockchain and next-generation artificial intelligence technologies to decentralize and accelerate biomedical research and healthcare", Oncotarget, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 5665-5690, 2018.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.22345] [PMID: 29464026]
[63]
M.M. Juneja Amit, "Leveraging blockchain for retraining deep learning architecture in patient-specific arrhythmia classification", In ieee embs Int. Conf. Biomed. Heal. informatics 04-07 March 2018, Las Vegas, NV, USA, pp. 393-397.
[64]
A. K Talukder, M. Chaitanya, D. Arnold, and K. Sakurai, "Proof of disease: A blockchain consensus protocol for accurate medical decisions and reducing the disease burden", IEEE SmartWorld, Ubiquitous Intell. Comput. Adv. Trust. Comput. Scalable Comput. 208 Commun. Cloud Big Data Comput. Internet People Smart City Innov, 2018 08-12 October 2018, Guangzhou, China pp. 257-262,, .
[65]
K. Salah, M. Habib Ur Rehman, N. Nizamuddin, and A. Al-Fuqaha, "Blockchain for AI: Review and open research challenges", IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 10127-10149, .
[66]
S. K. Al-Khazaali, and Ali Talib. Ahmed, "Study of integration of block chain and Internet of Things (IoT): an opportunity, challenges, and applications as medical sector and healthcare", Appl. Nanosci., pp. 1-7, 2018.
[67]
"Akiri switch positiveblockchain.io | explore the positive blockchain database", Available from: https://positiveblockchain.io/database/akiri-switch (Accessed on Jul 27 2023)
[68]
"BurstIQ - trust-first, digital experiences & exchanges", Available from: https://burstiq.com/ (Accessed on Jul 27 2023)
[69]
"Medicalchain", Available from: https://medicalchain.com/en/ (Accessed on Jul 27 2023).
[70]
"Guardtime", Available from: https://guardtime.com/ (Accessed Jul 27 2023)
[71]
"One network. many possibilities. The avaneer network", Available from: https://avaneerhealth.com/ (Accessed Jul 27 2023)
[72]
Available from: https://procredex.com/ (Accessed on Jul 27 2023)
[73]
Available from: https://www.coralhealth.com (Accessed on Jul 27 2023).
[74]
Available from: https://www.chronicled.com/ (Accessed on Sep 08 2023)
[75]
Available from: https://www.embleema.com/ (Accessed on Jul. 27, 2023).
[76]
C. Flick, "A critical professional ethical analysis of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)", J. Respons. Technol., vol. 12, p. 100054, 2022.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2022.100054]
[77]
A. Lei, H. Cruickshank, Y. Cao, P. Asuquo, C.P.A. Ogah, and Z. Sun, "Blockchain-based dynamic key management for heterogeneous intelligent transportation systems", IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 1832-1843, .
[78]
O. Gutiérrez, G. Romero, L. Pérez, A. Salazar, M. Charris, and P. Wightman, "Healthyblock: Blockchain-based it architecture for electronic medical records resilient to connectivity failures", Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, vol. 17, no. 19, p. 7132, 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197132] [PMID: 33003452]
[79]
D.R. Wong, S. Bhattacharya, and A.J. Butte, "Prototype of running clinical trials in an untrustworthy environment using blockchain", Nat. Commun., vol. 10, no. 1, p. 917, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08874-y] [PMID: 30796226]
[80]
A.D. Dhagarra, M. Goswami, P.R.S. Sarma, and Choudhury, "Big Data and blockchain supported conceptual model for enhanced healthcare coverage: The Indian context", Bus. Process. Manag. J., vol. 25, no. 7, .
[81]
J. Yang, M. Onik, N.Y. Lee, M. Ahmed, and C.S. Kim, "Proof-of-familiarity: A privacy-preserved blockchain scheme for collaborative medical decision-making", Appl. Sci., vol. 9, no. 7, p. 1370, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app9071370]
[82]
N.R. Brogan, and I.B. James, "Authenticating health activity data using distributed ledger technologies", Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J., vol. 16, pp. 257-266, 2018.
[83]
M. Foglia, Patients and Privacy: GDPR compliance for healthcare organizations.Eur. J. Priv. L. Tech, 2019.
[84]
C. Agbo, Q. Mahmoud, and J. Eklund, "Blockchain technology in healthcare: A systematic review", Health Care, vol. 7, no. 2, p. 56, 2019.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7020056] [PMID: 30987333]
[85]
O. O’Donoghue, A.A. Vazirani, D. Brindley, and E. Meinert, "“Design choices and trade-offs in health care blockchain implementations: Systematic review”, ournal Med", Internet Res., vol. 21, no. 5, p. 12426, .
[86]
M.J. Ølnes, and J.U. Svein, "Blockchain in government: Benefits and implications of distributed ledger technology for information sharing", Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 355-364, 2018.
[87]
"Igor Radanović and Likić Robert, “Opportunities for use of blockchain technology in medicine”", Appl. Health Econ. Health Policy, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 583-590, 2018.

Rights & Permissions Print Cite
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy