Electronic health records in a Blockchain: A systematic review

• Published in: Health informatics journal Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 1273 - 1288
• Main Authors: Mayer, André Henrique, da Costa, Cristiano André, Righi, Rodrigo da Rosa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-06-2020; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Blockchain; Electronic health records; Health care; Information sharing; Peer to peer computing; Systematic review; distributed systems; medical informatics; electronic health records; Blockchain
• ISSN: 1460-4582; 1741-2811
• DOI: 10.1177/1460458219866350

Blockchain could reinvent the way patient’s electronic health records are shared and stored by providing safer mechanisms for health information exchange of medical data in the healthcare industry, by securing it over a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Intending to support and ease the understanding of this distributed ledger technology, a solid Systematic Literature Review was conducted, aiming to explore the recent literature on Blockchain and healthcare domain and identify existing challenges and open questions, guided by the raise of research questions regarding EHR in a Blockchain. More than 300 scientific studies published in the last ten years were surveyed, resulting in an up-to-date taxonomy creation, challenges and open questions identified, and the most significant approaches, data types, standards and architectures regarding the use of Blockchain for EHR were assessed and discussed.