HonestChain: Consortium blockchain for protected data sharing in health information systems

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Blockchain Technology
• Distributed Systems

Background:

• Healthcare data sharing is crucial for predictive analytics, requiring secure and standards-compliant distributed datasets.
• Existing health information systems lack robust cooperation and distributed trust mechanisms for inter-domain data sharing.
• Protecting sensitive health records during sharing between entities like hospitals and research labs remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce HonestChain, a novel health information sharing system leveraging Blockchain technology.
• To enable incentive-based and trustworthy cooperation for accessing and providing protected healthcare records.
• To enhance compliance with data access standards and build reputation within a consortium.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a consortium Blockchain approach.
• Integration of chatbot-guided interfaces for data requesters.
• Development of a reputation scheme using Requester Reputation and Provider Reputation metrics.
• Evaluation using Hyperledger Composer in a simulated public cloud environment.

Main Results:

• HonestChain outperforms state-of-the-art requester reputation schemes in data request handling.
• The system effectively selects appropriate provider peers.
• HonestChain demonstrates a superior tradeoff between service time and request resubmission rates.
• Scalability of the consortium platform was validated through Blockchain transaction times.

Conclusions:

• HonestChain provides a secure, efficient, and scalable solution for protected healthcare data sharing.
• The proposed reputation scheme fosters trust and sustains consortium participation.
• The system facilitates compliant data access and enhances cooperation among healthcare entities.