A Privacy-Preserving Healthcare Framework Using Hyperledger Fabric

TL;DR

This paper introduces PREHEALTH, a blockchain-based framework using Hyperledger Fabric and Idemix to securely and privately manage electronic health records, ensuring patient anonymity and system efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a novel privacy-preserving EHR management system leveraging distributed ledger technology and identity mixing, with a proof-of-concept implementation and performance evaluation.

Findings

Effective patient record storage with privacy features

System demonstrates efficiency suitable for real-world deployment

Provides anonymity and unlinkability in EHR management

Abstract

Electronic health record (EHR) management systems require the adoption of effective technologies when health information is being exchanged. Current management approaches often face risks that may expose medical record storage solutions to common security attack vectors. However, healthcare-oriented blockchain solutions can provide a decentralized, anonymous and secure EHR handling approach. This paper presents PREHEALTH, a privacy-preserving EHR management solution that uses distributed ledger technology and an Identity Mixer (Idemix). The paper describes a proof-of-concept implementation that uses the Hyperledger Fabric's permissioned blockchain framework. The proposed solution is able to store patient records effectively whilst providing anonymity and unlinkability. Experimental performance evaluation results demonstrate the scheme's efficiency and feasibility for real-world scale deployment.