PHDMF: A Flexible and Scalable Personal Health Data Management Framework Based on Blockchain Technology

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Data Security
• Blockchain Technology

Background:

• Personal health data (PHD) is fragmented across institutions, hindering secure sharing and circulation.
• Current methods for data sharing are inefficient due to massive data transfers and third-party reliance.
• Rapid growth of medical data necessitates advanced management and sharing solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a secure and efficient framework for managing and sharing personal health data across multiple medical institutions.
• To address challenges in data privacy, integrity, and provenance in a multi-institutional setting.
• To facilitate data circulation and enable value mining from aggregated health data.

Main Methods:

• Developed a federal personal health data management framework (PHDMF).
• Utilized blockchain technology to establish a data consortium for flexible member extension and to eliminate third-party endorsement.
• Implemented distributed data storage, keeping data within original institutions to avoid massive transfers.
• Employed distributed ledger technology to record data hash values for tamper detection.
• Integrated smart contract technology for traceable data access control and provenance.
• Provided a trusted computing environment for meta-analysis using statistical information, compatible with federated learning.

Main Results:

• Established a flexible and scalable data consortium using blockchain technology.
• Enabled secure data sharing without massive data transfers, aligning with data growth.
• Ensured data integrity through hash value recording on a distributed ledger.
• Achieved traceable data transactions and provenance via smart contracts.
• Facilitated secure meta-analysis of health data in a trusted computing environment.

Conclusions:

• The PHDMF offers a convenient, secure, and trusted environment for health data supervision and circulation.
• The framework successfully facilitates consortium establishment among medical institutions.
• It enhances the value of data sharing and mining by providing a robust and secure platform.