Open Access

ARTICLE

An Immutable Framework for Smart Healthcare Using Blockchain Technology

Faneela¹, Muazzam A. Khan¹, Suliman A. Alsuhibany^2,*, Walid El-Shafai^3,4, Mujeeb Ur Rehman⁵, Jawad Ahmad⁶

1 Department of Computer Science, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan
2 Department of Computer Science, College of Computer, Qassim University, Buraydah, 51452, Saudi Arabia
3 Department of Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menoufia University, Menouf, 32952, Egypt
4 Department of Computer Science, Security Engineering Laboratory, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, 11586, Saudi Arabia
5 James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK
6 School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, EH10 5DT, UK

* Corresponding Author: Suliman A. Alsuhibany. Email:

Computer Systems Science and Engineering 2023, 46(1), 165-179. https://doi.org/10.32604/csse.2023.035066

Received 06 August 2022; Accepted 30 September 2022; Issue published 20 January 2023

Abstract

The advancements in sensing technologies, information processing, and communication schemes have revolutionized the healthcare sector. Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) facilitate the patients, doctors, hospitals, and other stakeholders to maintain valuable data and medical records. The traditional EHRs are based on cloud-based architectures and are susceptible to multiple cyberattacks. A single attempt of a successful Denial of Service (DoS) attack can compromise the complete healthcare system. This article introduces a secure and immutable blockchain-based framework for the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) to address the stated challenges. The proposed architecture is on the idea of a lightweight private blockchain-based network that facilitates the users and hospitals to perform multiple healthcare-related operations in a secure and trustworthy manner. The efficacy of the proposed framework is evaluated in the context of service execution time and throughput. The experimental outcomes indicate that the proposed design attained lower service execution time and higher throughput under different control parameters.

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Keywords

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