Blockchain and medical data: how it works
Today we will explain how the Exonum TM blockchain can speed up the processing of medical data and protect this data from theft.
Image: sergio santos CC BY
The digitalization of medicine today makes it possible for all participants in the healthcare system, from patients to pharmaceutical companies, to exchange data in electronic form.
')
For example, electronic medical records (EMR) have made it easier for doctors and patients to access medical history. Such solutions are successfully used in Taiwan and Estonia . EMRs open up new perspectives in healthcare, but they also require new approaches to ensuring the security of personal data.
Data on human health is very attractive to cybercriminals. According to the Ponemon Institute survey for 2016, 89% of the surveyed managers of medical organizations admitted that they had experienced at least one leak in the last couple of years. State organizations like the US Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ) and laws like the Mobility and Accountability Act of Health Insurance of 1996 ( HIPAA ) advise on how to protect medical data, but leaks often happen anyway.
The blockchain is capable of helping to solve the problem of personal data security in medicine. Distributed registries can formalize the process of exchanging medical records, as well as give patients more control over their health indicators. At Bitfury, together with colleagues from the biotechnology company Insilico Medicine and the University of Oxford, we developed the concept of a medical ecosystem on the Exonum blockchain. Let's tell how it works.
Our medical ecosystem consists of a blockchain and cloud storage. Small files with medical data are stored in the blockchain, and large files are stored in the cloud storage. The blockchain records information about the data uploaded to the cloud, the rights to read them, and information about the custodians of keys.
Any company can act as a cloud storage provider (the main thing is that the service meets HIPAA requirements). It is planned to store volumetric medical data in it, for example, images of CT or MRI, which can occupy tens of megabytes. All data uploaded to the cloud is encrypted.
Our medical ecosystem has four user groups:
For data exchange special utilitarian LifePound tokens are used. Their number depends on the value of medical data in the blockchain. Individual recording is considered as a system of three elements (triad) - type, time and quality.
The data type can be dynamic (for example, a blood test or an epigenome) or static (genome, fingerprints). The time element is the date the data was received. As for quality, here the “shelf life” of information or analyzes is taken into account - the higher it is, the more valuable the information. For example, the result of checking for cholesterol is valid for six months, and a genetic test is a lifetime.
In general, a model for calculating the value of a medical record for one person might look like this:
Here k is the number of records, fk is the cost function for the combination of these records, and R is the triad.
Other formulas are suggested for calculating the cost of a given group of people or entire families. They can be found in the report posted on our website on page 11 .
Work begins with the fact that users upload data to the cloud storage, where they are checked and anonymized — the patient ID is removed — and then encrypted using symmetric encryption . Further, using the Shamir algorithm , the keys are sent to the custodians (this is one of the types of full blockchain nodes) via direct authenticated communication channels, so that they can decipher user data if necessary.
At the same time, a service transaction is generated, which informs other ecosystem participants of the data upload to the cloud. This transaction contains the public key, data type information, and a link to them in the cloud storage. After the electronic signature, information can be recorded on the blockchain.
To decide whether to add a transaction to the blockchain or not, network participants arrive using a consensus algorithm . The validator nodes check the information and generate a service transaction containing the data hashes and the result of the validation. If the data is validated, they are recorded in the blockchain, and their owner receives LifePound tokens, the number of which is determined by a smart contract. After that, information about the patient becomes available to other participants.
Then, if the data is required by the doctor to conduct research or make a diagnosis, he forms a request and sends it to the validators. They add a request to the blockchain and tell the custodians to send cryptographic keys to the doctor to decrypt data from the cloud. Similarly, the process looks like for pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, government medical institutions, and supervisory authorities.
Image: COM SALUD CC BY
Exonum blockchain can become a single (but decentralized) database of medical information. In the future, it will be possible to fill it not only with the help of doctors who contribute data from electronic maps, but also with the help of medical IoT gadgets. Also in the blockchain, you can record the results of group examinations from diagnostic centers and information about the clinical trials of drugs.
Authorized access to patient data will receive any hospital in the country. This will enable doctors to quickly share the results of clinical trials, which will accelerate the development of drugs for serious diseases.
Some of the components of our ecosystem have already been successfully tested in practice. Together with partners from Longenesis and Medical Diagnostics Web, we created the first private blockchain on the basis of Exonum for the exchange of medical data in the field of radiology. The solution simplifies the work of radiologists - reduces the time of analysis of images and provides access to a single database for research.
We hope that in the future, with the help of our medical ecosystem, the patients of the clinics will track their visits to the doctor, medical services, monitor the dynamics of the state of health, and assess the impact of the drugs that the doctor has prescribed. A single blockchain-based ecosystem in the future will help speed up the diagnosis of diseases, reduce the number of errors in diagnosis and make the treatment process more transparent.
Our other materials on Habré:
Image: sergio santos CC BY
Confidentiality
The digitalization of medicine today makes it possible for all participants in the healthcare system, from patients to pharmaceutical companies, to exchange data in electronic form.
')
For example, electronic medical records (EMR) have made it easier for doctors and patients to access medical history. Such solutions are successfully used in Taiwan and Estonia . EMRs open up new perspectives in healthcare, but they also require new approaches to ensuring the security of personal data.
Data on human health is very attractive to cybercriminals. According to the Ponemon Institute survey for 2016, 89% of the surveyed managers of medical organizations admitted that they had experienced at least one leak in the last couple of years. State organizations like the US Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ) and laws like the Mobility and Accountability Act of Health Insurance of 1996 ( HIPAA ) advise on how to protect medical data, but leaks often happen anyway.
The blockchain is capable of helping to solve the problem of personal data security in medicine. Distributed registries can formalize the process of exchanging medical records, as well as give patients more control over their health indicators. At Bitfury, together with colleagues from the biotechnology company Insilico Medicine and the University of Oxford, we developed the concept of a medical ecosystem on the Exonum blockchain. Let's tell how it works.
Medical ecosystem on Exonum blockchain
Our medical ecosystem consists of a blockchain and cloud storage. Small files with medical data are stored in the blockchain, and large files are stored in the cloud storage. The blockchain records information about the data uploaded to the cloud, the rights to read them, and information about the custodians of keys.
Any company can act as a cloud storage provider (the main thing is that the service meets HIPAA requirements). It is planned to store volumetric medical data in it, for example, images of CT or MRI, which can occupy tens of megabytes. All data uploaded to the cloud is encrypted.
Our medical ecosystem has four user groups:
- Users (patients) - patients themselves or authorized third parties (medical centers, for example) who download medical data into the system.
- Validators - check the quality and authenticity of data uploaded by users.
- Clients (doctors) - examine patient data, prepare health status reports.
- Pharmaceutical and research companies - may acquire access to impersonal user data.
For data exchange special utilitarian LifePound tokens are used. Their number depends on the value of medical data in the blockchain. Individual recording is considered as a system of three elements (triad) - type, time and quality.
The data type can be dynamic (for example, a blood test or an epigenome) or static (genome, fingerprints). The time element is the date the data was received. As for quality, here the “shelf life” of information or analyzes is taken into account - the higher it is, the more valuable the information. For example, the result of checking for cholesterol is valid for six months, and a genetic test is a lifetime.
In general, a model for calculating the value of a medical record for one person might look like this:
Here k is the number of records, fk is the cost function for the combination of these records, and R is the triad.
Other formulas are suggested for calculating the cost of a given group of people or entire families. They can be found in the report posted on our website on page 11 .
How to work with data
Work begins with the fact that users upload data to the cloud storage, where they are checked and anonymized — the patient ID is removed — and then encrypted using symmetric encryption . Further, using the Shamir algorithm , the keys are sent to the custodians (this is one of the types of full blockchain nodes) via direct authenticated communication channels, so that they can decipher user data if necessary.
At the same time, a service transaction is generated, which informs other ecosystem participants of the data upload to the cloud. This transaction contains the public key, data type information, and a link to them in the cloud storage. After the electronic signature, information can be recorded on the blockchain.
To decide whether to add a transaction to the blockchain or not, network participants arrive using a consensus algorithm . The validator nodes check the information and generate a service transaction containing the data hashes and the result of the validation. If the data is validated, they are recorded in the blockchain, and their owner receives LifePound tokens, the number of which is determined by a smart contract. After that, information about the patient becomes available to other participants.
Then, if the data is required by the doctor to conduct research or make a diagnosis, he forms a request and sends it to the validators. They add a request to the blockchain and tell the custodians to send cryptographic keys to the doctor to decrypt data from the cloud. Similarly, the process looks like for pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, government medical institutions, and supervisory authorities.
Image: COM SALUD CC BY
Perspectives
Exonum blockchain can become a single (but decentralized) database of medical information. In the future, it will be possible to fill it not only with the help of doctors who contribute data from electronic maps, but also with the help of medical IoT gadgets. Also in the blockchain, you can record the results of group examinations from diagnostic centers and information about the clinical trials of drugs.
Authorized access to patient data will receive any hospital in the country. This will enable doctors to quickly share the results of clinical trials, which will accelerate the development of drugs for serious diseases.
Some of the components of our ecosystem have already been successfully tested in practice. Together with partners from Longenesis and Medical Diagnostics Web, we created the first private blockchain on the basis of Exonum for the exchange of medical data in the field of radiology. The solution simplifies the work of radiologists - reduces the time of analysis of images and provides access to a single database for research.
We hope that in the future, with the help of our medical ecosystem, the patients of the clinics will track their visits to the doctor, medical services, monitor the dynamics of the state of health, and assess the impact of the drugs that the doctor has prescribed. A single blockchain-based ecosystem in the future will help speed up the diagnosis of diseases, reduce the number of errors in diagnosis and make the treatment process more transparent.
Our other materials on Habré:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/442450/
All Articles