"Ensuring Security in Electronic Health Records: Implementing and Validating a Blockchain and IPFS Framework"

Abstract

The rapid advancement of information technology has completely transformed the healthcare sector, demanding creative solutions to tackle a wide range of challenges. Electronic Health Records (EHR) are essential in contemporary healthcare systems, enabling the storage, retrieval, and sharing of data about patients among healthcare providers. Ensuring the confidentiality and safety of EHR data is a major challenge because of the sensitive nature of health-related information and the growing number of cyber threats. Our paper introduces a new framework for enhancing the security of Electronic Health Records by leveraging the use of blockchain technology and the Inter Planetary File System (IPFS). The framework utilizes the immutability and decentralized nature of blockchain to guarantee data integrity and audibility, while IPFS offers a distributed and resistant tamp storing solution for data stored off-chain. Explaining the structure of our proposed framework, which involves combining blockchain and IPFS components, and examining how it tackles important security and privacy issues in EHR systems. Furthermore, a demonstration of the framework's implementation is provided, along with an assessment of its performance, scalability, and security aspects. The study illustrates the potential and success of utilizing blockchain and IPFS to secure Electronic Health Records, leading to improved data security and compatibility in healthcare systems.