Blockchain & health: Rethinking data security
Project description
Blockchain technology is establishing itself as the basis for secure and transparent digital ecosystems. In the healthcare sector in particular, it offers potential for improving data exchange and data sovereignty. This thesis investigates the application of blockchain technology in the context of Personal Health Records (PHRs), with the aim of creating a secure and interoperable system for the management of health data.
The motivation lies in the existing challenges of traditional systems - siloing, lack of interoperability and security risks. The thesis presents the development of a real-world, blockchain-secured PHR system called OSHealthRec and the results of continuous evaluations.
The key results of the research are the formulation of three design principles for blockchain applications and the findings from the evaluation cycles. These showed, among other things, the need to add the option to delete documents, to take into account the medical specialization of the professionals involved and to improve the search function within the uploaded documents. Furthermore, the need for better management of access authorizations and a simplified user interface was identified. The work makes an important contribution to the design of secure and user-friendly blockchain solutions in the healthcare sector.