Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Mar 4, 2021
Date Accepted: Jun 14, 2021
Blockchain for increased trust in virtual healthcare: Ushered through a proof-of-concept
ABSTRACT
Background:
Healthcare systems are currently undergoing a digital transformation, largely triggered by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things, 5G, blockchain and the digital representation of patients by means of (mobile) sensoring devices. One of the results of this transformation is the gradual virtualization of care. Irrespective of the care environment, trust between caregiver and patient is essential for achieving favorable health outcomes. Given the many breaches of information security and patient safety, today’s health information system portfolios do not suffice as infrastructure for establishing and maintaining trust in virtual care environments.
Objective:
To establish a theoretical foundation for a complex health- care system intervention that aims to exploit a cryptographically secured infrastructure for establishing and maintaining trust in virtualized care environments, and based on this theoretical foundation, to present a proof-of- concept that fulfills the necessary requirements.
Methods:
Framework for design and evaluation of complex interventions research within healthcare. Review the literature and expert consultation for technical forecasting. Presents a proof-of-concept, following the principles of design science [1] and requirements engineering [2].
Results:
This paper determines and defines the crucial functional and non-functional requirements and the principles for enhancing trust between caregiver and patient within a virtualized healthcare environment. The cornerstone in our architecture is an approach that utilizes blockchain technology. The proposed decentralized system offers an innovative governance structure for a novel trust model. The presented theoretical design principles are supported by a concrete implementation of an Ethereum based platform called VerifyMed. The proposed decentralized system offers an innovative governance structure for a novel trust model.
Conclusions:
A service for enhancing trust in a virtual healthcare environment, built on a public blockchain, has a high fit-for-purpose in Healthcare 4.0.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.