Blockchain and Healthcare: Opportunities and Prospects for the EHR

Guendalina Capece and Francesco Lorenzi
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Guendalina Capece: Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Francesco Lorenzi: Department of Business Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: Health protection has always been a primary concern for mankind. Despite its important social role, current systems for managing the health records are slow, complicated, sometimes expensive and exposed to human errors and misunderstandings. In the health sector, the Medicalchain project seems to have the potential to become a new standard for managing health records using blockchain technology as a platform. In this paper, we propose a new model consisting of a permissioned blockchain to manage and store the electronic health records (EHR) of registered patients. This system guarantees transparency and especially immutability, which are essential for secure management and storage, ensuring a system that is efficient both for doctors and patients and, hopefully, bringing about renewed trust in the public health system. Our aim is that our work may contribute to gain momentum on the application of the blockchain technology to EHR and stimulate further discussion with health institutions to fully exploit the potential of the technology.

Keywords: blockchain technology; health protection; electronic health record; digital innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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