Emerging Trends in Healthcare AI
December 30, 2023Italy
December 30, 2023Blockchain Technology in Healthcare AI
Blockchain technology can be applied to AI in healthcare because of the promise of safer and more secure data storage. EHR and Big data could have a great advantage. Its important to keep an eye on this technology...
Health care is an essential area of information technology. The medical data generated from these sources is vast and cumbersome, thereby leading to problems with the quality of medical data, such as complicated analysis, diagnosis and prediction, and the risk in data confidentiality due to the increasing number of cybercrime cases. (1) Data security is an essential component of healthcare applications and plays a key role in protecting sensitive data. Healthcare data includes patient details, which should not be disclosed to any untrusted third party because of safety issues and misuse of information.
Blockchain Overview
Blockchain technology is a digital ledger that allows one to record and share information in a community. Each entry is transparent and searchable, thereby enabling community members to view its history. The cryptology in blockchain substitutes third-party intermediaries as trust keepers, while all participants run complex algorithms to certify the integrity of an entry.
The blockchain platform adopts a decentralized architecture where all network members achieve the required application purpose. A system state perceived in one machine is replicated, and this state information is stored in the context of blockchain.
The public key is used with a hash function to create a public address that users use to send and receive valuable assets. The private key, used to sign a digital transaction to ensure the transaction’s origin is valid, is maintained confidential. Each block in the blockchain consists of at least one transaction, the signature of the block validators, and a reference to the previous block.
Types of Blockchain
Private blockchains strictly manage a network’s data access authorization. The membership of nodes in the P2P network cannot participate in verifying and validating transactions without permission. Instead, only companies or organizations can verify and validate every transaction in the network. (1)
Public blockchains are considered unpermissioned ledgers (e.g., Bitcoin or Ethereum) when nodes interconnected to the network are accessible to anyone via the Internet. A blockchain is primarily designed to eliminate centralized authority in a digital asset scenario exchange securely.
A consortium or federated blockchain is an integration between public and private blockchains and can be partially decentralized. The detail of each data transaction in a blockchain network allows it to be public or private, and nodes have the authority to be selected in advance.
Private blockchains strictly manage a network’s data access authorization. The membership of nodes in the P2P network cannot participate in verifying and validating transactions without permission. Instead, only companies or organizations can verify and validate every transaction in the network.(1) Public blockchains are considered unpermissioned ledgers (e.g., Bitcoin or Ethereum) when nodes interconnected to the network are accessible to anyone via the Internet. A blockchain is primarily designed to eliminate centralized authority in a digital asset scenario exchange securely.
A consortium or federated blockchain is an integration between public and private blockchains and can be partially decentralized. The detail of each data transaction in a blockchain network allows it to be public or private, and nodes have the authority to be selected in advance.
Blockchain in Healthcare
Blockchain features have brought several benefits to numerous industrial fields and can become an advantageous tool in healthcare system applications. However, blockchain technology may only be the ideal choice to solve some problems in industrial fields if the application requires decentralization.
Blockchain technology may be helpful if an application is required to be decentralized. Although certain healthcare applications may not be required to be, the majority of such applications may have benefited from an untrusted centralized system.
Therefore, certain features in healthcare applications should be recognized before deciding whether a blockchain should be used. Data security regarding HER is also a point to be considered.(2)
Blockchain features have brought several benefits to numerous industrial fields and can become an advantageous tool in healthcare system applications. However, blockchain technology may only be the ideal choice to solve some problems in industrial fields if the application requires decentralization.Blockchain technology may be helpful if an application is required to be decentralized. Although certain healthcare applications may not be required to be, the majority of such applications may have benefited from an untrusted centralized system.
Therefore, certain features in healthcare applications should be recognized before deciding whether a blockchain should be used. Data security regarding HER is also a point to be considered.(2)