Abstract: In smart systems context, the storage and distribution of health-critical data – medical images, test reports, clinical information etc. that is processed and transmitted via web portal and pervasive devices which requires a secure and efficient management of patients’ medical records. The reliance on centralized data centers in the cloud to process, store, and transmit patients’ medical records poses some critical challenges including but not limited to operational costs, storage space requirements, and importantly threats and vulnerabilities to the security and privacy of health-critical data. To address these issues, this research proposes a framework and provides a proof-of-the-concept named Patient-Centric Medical Image Management System (PCMIMS). The proposed solution PCMIMS utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) to enable secure and decentralized storage capabilities that lack in existing solution for patients’ medical image management. The PCMIMS design facilitates secure access to Patient-Centric information for health units, patients, medics, and third-party requestors by incorporating the Patient-Centric access control protocol, ensuring privacy and control over medical data. The proposed framework is validated through the deployment of a prototype based on smart contract executed on Ethereum TESTNET blockchain that demonstrates efficiency and feasibility of the solution. Validation results highlight a correlation between (i) number of transactions (i.e., data storage and retrieval), (ii) gas consumption (i.e., energy efficiency), and (iii) data size (volume of Patient-Centric medical images) via repeated trials in Microsoft Windows environment. Validation results also indicate computational efficiency of the solution in terms of processing three most common types of Patient-Centric medical images namely (a) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (b) X-radiation (X-Rays), (c) Computed tomography (CT) scan. This research primarily contributes by designing, implementing, and validating a blockchain based practical solution for efficient and secure management of Patient-Centric medical image management in the context of smart healthcare systems.

Abdulaziz Aljaloud, “A Framework for Patient-Centric Medical Image Management using Blockchain Technology” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications(IJACSA), 14(8), 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2023.0140883

@article{Aljaloud2023,
title = {A Framework for Patient-Centric Medical Image Management using Blockchain Technology},
journal = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
doi = {10.14569/IJACSA.2023.0140883},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2023.0140883},
year = {2023},
publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
volume = {14},
number = {8},
author = {Abdulaziz Aljaloud}
}