Application of Blockchain Technology
in Healthcare: A Comprehensive Study
Rim Ben Fekih
1,2(B) and Mariam Lahami
1,2(B)
1 ReDCAD Laboratory, National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax,
BP 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
{rim.benfekih,mariam.lahami}@redcad.org
2 Digital Research Center of Sfax, B.P. 275, Sakiet Ezzit, 3021 Sfax, Tunisia
Abstract. Blockchain technology has been emerged in the last decade
and has gained a lot of interests from several sectors such as finance,
government, energy, health, etc. This paper gives a broad ranging survey
of the application of blockchain in healthcare domain. In fact, the ongoing research in this area is evolving rapidly. Therefore, we have identified
several use cases in the state of art applying the blockchain technology,
for instance for sharing electronic medical records, for remote patient
monitoring, for drug supply chain, etc. We have focused also on identifying limitations of studied approaches and finally we have discussed some
open research issues and the areas of future research.
Keywords: Blockchain · Healthcare · Review
1 Introduction
In the last decade, blockchain is emerging as one of the most promising technology that captures attentions of several academic researches and industry. This
concept was originally introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in a white paper in 2008
[19]. It is defined as a decentralized, distributed, immutable ledger which is used
to securely record transactions across many computers in a peer-to-peer network,
without the need of third party.
The first generation of blockchain, Blockchain 1.0, is underlying on Bitcoin
[19] which is the first implementation of blockchain based on cryptocurrency
applications
1 . The next generation, called Block chain 2.0, is emerged with the
concept of smart contract that it is considered as a piece of code defined, executed and recorded in the distributed ledger. The third generation of blockchain
technology, Blockchain 3.0, deals essentially with non financial applications such
as government, energy, health, etc. In fact, several organisations have adopted
this technology and applied it for several use cases in the healthcare domain.
The most interesting features in blockchain that are beneficial to healthcare
1 Other blockchain 1.0 technologies have been appeared such as Dash, Litecoin, etc.
c
The Author(s) 2020
M. Jmaiel et al. (Eds.): ICOST 2020, LNCS 12157, pp. 268–276, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51517-1_23
in Healthcare: A Comprehensive Study
Rim Ben Fekih
1,2(B) and Mariam Lahami
1,2(B)
1 ReDCAD Laboratory, National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax,
BP 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
{rim.benfekih,mariam.lahami}@redcad.org
2 Digital Research Center of Sfax, B.P. 275, Sakiet Ezzit, 3021 Sfax, Tunisia
Abstract. Blockchain technology has been emerged in the last decade
and has gained a lot of interests from several sectors such as finance,
government, energy, health, etc. This paper gives a broad ranging survey
of the application of blockchain in healthcare domain. In fact, the ongoing research in this area is evolving rapidly. Therefore, we have identified
several use cases in the state of art applying the blockchain technology,
for instance for sharing electronic medical records, for remote patient
monitoring, for drug supply chain, etc. We have focused also on identifying limitations of studied approaches and finally we have discussed some
open research issues and the areas of future research.
Keywords: Blockchain · Healthcare · Review
1 Introduction
In the last decade, blockchain is emerging as one of the most promising technology that captures attentions of several academic researches and industry. This
concept was originally introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in a white paper in 2008
[19]. It is defined as a decentralized, distributed, immutable ledger which is used
to securely record transactions across many computers in a peer-to-peer network,
without the need of third party.
The first generation of blockchain, Blockchain 1.0, is underlying on Bitcoin
[19] which is the first implementation of blockchain based on cryptocurrency
applications
1 . The next generation, called Block chain 2.0, is emerged with the
concept of smart contract that it is considered as a piece of code defined, executed and recorded in the distributed ledger. The third generation of blockchain
technology, Blockchain 3.0, deals essentially with non financial applications such
as government, energy, health, etc. In fact, several organisations have adopted
this technology and applied it for several use cases in the healthcare domain.
The most interesting features in blockchain that are beneficial to healthcare
1 Other blockchain 1.0 technologies have been appeared such as Dash, Litecoin, etc.
c
The Author(s) 2020
M. Jmaiel et al. (Eds.): ICOST 2020, LNCS 12157, pp. 268–276, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51517-1_23