Integrating Healthcare Services Using Blockchain-Based Telehealth Framework

Abstract

Blockchain technology (BT) has a wide range of built-in features, such as decentralization, transparency, data provenance, security, immutability, and has moved beyond the hype to practical applications in the healthcare industry. Telehealth turns out to be the most efficient and effective way of dispensing healthcare services even in remote areas. Though telehealth has the proven potential to improve the quality of healthcare, its implementation and adoption remain far from ideal. There is a need for a telehealth system that not only ensures the privacy and security of the users but also provides authentic services that enhance the trust to the highest level. Existing applications are leveraging BT and providing limited telehealth services. These applications are focused on a few services; hence do not cover all aspects of healthcare. To unveil the true potential of telehealth, this paper aims to develop an effective telehealth framework-BlockHeal which integrates all essential healthcare services under one platform and ensures a full-fledged trusted environment. The methodology employed includes survey of existing telehealth system, identifying their weaknesses and critical reasons behind their lack of widespread adoption. The proposed framework addresses the limitations and includes all stakeholders of the healthcare system instigating a consolidated platform to ensure authentic, safe, and timely healthcare facilities. Additionally, as the proposed framework is based on BT, it ensures the provision of secure, fault-tolerant, transparent, and tamper-proof data. Moreover, it offers decentralized storage via hyperledger fabric and a collection of decentralized applications (DApps). Finally, the effectiveness of the BlockHeal framework is validated by demonstrating several use-cases.