A Blockchain-Based Health Journal For Sharing Medical Records Between Different Health Providers.

Author

Chidenge, Tinotenda

Title

A Blockchain-Based Health Journal For Sharing Medical Records Between Different Health Providers.

Abstract

Reversing the prevalent problems of data fragmentation, security vulnerabilities, and limited interoperability in traditional electronic health record (EHR) systems in environments like Zimbabwe, this research proposes a blockchain-enabled health journal. This study aimed to design and implement a blockchain-powered health journal that would facilitate secure, patient-oriented sharing of health records across different types of healthcare providers. Through the implementation of a design science research approach, the methodology involved the development of a decentralized application utilizing Ethereum blockchain for transaction immutability and smart contracts, and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) as an off-chain encrypted data storage. Cryptographic hashing (SHA-256) was applied to guarantee data integrity and authenticity. Key findings indicate the utilization of a decentralized architecture successfully, sustaining good security, tamper-evident record storage, and open data sharing. The system was able to effectively grant patients full ownership over their health data, with dynamic access control. Smart contracts were successfully automated to control access rules, applying permissions and enabling secure authentication. Moreover, the system had a level of interoperability that enabled healthcare providers to access patient records across institutions using a common blockchain infrastructure. User testing was very high in terms of control mechanisms and usability, with 66.7% of users being able to work independently without support. A surprise critical result, however, revealed a data integrity match of 66.7% between submitted and retrieved data, indicating a severe flaw in the current off-chain data management or data retrieval process that is antithetical to the underlying promise of blockchain immutability. These results hold deep implications for software engineering, affirming blockchain as industry-shaping technology for safe and patient-centered health information systems. In validating the theoretical benefit of decentralization and smart contract automation, the work also identifies significant engineering challenges, specifically to provide end-to-end data integrity in combining on-chain and off-chain storage. Future studies must aim at bridging the gap in data integrity, continuing to enhance overall system usability towards universal acceptance, accurate performance benchmarking, and rigorously confirming regulatory compliance to continue advancing the practical adoption of secure, blockchain-based healthcare solutions.

Date

June 2025

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

Blockchain-Based

Sharing Medical Records

Health Journal

Supervisor

W.Kanyongo