CrowdMed-II: a blockchain-based framework for efficient consent management in health data sharing.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Blockchain Technology
• Data Management

Background:

• Healthcare data is fragmented, of poor quality, and inadequately shared.
• Traditional systems lack patient privacy controls and are vulnerable to data breaches.
• Existing blockchain solutions need detailed smart contract analysis for health data sharing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose CrowdMed-II, a blockchain-based framework for health data management.
• To address fragmentation, quality, sharing, and privacy issues in healthcare data.
• To analyze and design smart contracts for efficient and secure health data exchange.

Main Methods:

• Developed CrowdMed-II, a novel blockchain framework for health data.
• Designed and proposed two smart contract structures for the framework.
• Introduced a unique search contract for patient data retrieval.
• Evaluated framework efficiency using Ethereum execution costs.

Main Results:

• CrowdMed-II effectively addresses health data fragmentation, quality, and sharing challenges.
• Proposed smart contracts demonstrate improved efficiency and reduced computational costs.
• The framework enhances patient privacy and data control.
• The design is more scalable and feasible for widespread adoption compared to prior solutions.

Conclusions:

• CrowdMed-II offers a robust solution for secure and efficient health data management using blockchain.
• Optimized smart contracts lower operational costs, promoting scalability and adoption.
• The framework empowers patients with greater control over their health data and privacy.