Evaluating the Impact of Blockchain Models for Secure and Trustworthy Electronic Healthcare Records

• Main Authors: Mohammad Zarour, Md Tarique Jamal Ansari, Mamdouh Alenezi, Amal Krishna Sarkar, Mohd Faizan, Alka Agrawal, Rajeev Kumar, Raees Ahmad Khan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Blockchain; decision making; fuzzy logic; healthcare blockchain; health and safety
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9178798/

Blockchain technology is among the most significant developments and revolutionary innovations of the Information Technology industry. It corners a crucial space in the present digital era and has already made significant differences in human life. Moreover, it is anticipated that the Blockchain technology will improvise the existing IT facilities in the next several years in many domains. Recent technological developments are allowing for a major advancement in Healthcare sectors. Information security and accessibility are critical considerations for the integration and communication with Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) systems when sharing private medical information. In this context, selecting the most effective blockchain model for secure and trustworthy EHRs in the healthcare sector requires an accurate mechanism for evaluating the impact of different available blockchain models for its features. The present study uses a scientifically proven approach for evaluating the impact of blockchain technology and provides a novel idea and path to the future researchers. This research analysis garnered the feedback of 56 domain experts in the healthcare management for assessing the impact of different blockchain models. To eliminate the ambiguities that arose due to multiple opinions of these experts and for the externalization and organization of information about the selection context of the blockchain model, the study used a decision model. Fuzzy Analytic Analytical Network Process (F-ANP) method was used to calculate the weights of the criteria as well as the Fuzzy-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique was used to evaluate the effect of alternative solutions. Further, the results obtained through this empirical investigation will be an instrumental reference for choosing the most appropriate Blockchain model for maintaining breach-free EHRs.