Journal:Blockchain-based healthcare workflow for IoT-connected laboratories in federated hospital clouds
| Full article title | Blockchain-based healthcare workflow for IoT-connected laboratories in federated hospital clouds |
|---|---|
| Journal | Sensors |
| Author(s) | Celesti, Antonio; Ruggeri, Armando; Fazio, Maria; Galletta, Antonino; Villari, Massimo; Romano, Agata |
| Author affiliation(s) | University of Messina, INdAM-GNCS, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, ASP Messina |
| Primary contact | Email: acelesti at unime dot it |
| Year published | 2020 |
| Volume and issue | 20(9) |
| Article # | 2590 |
| DOI | 10.3390/s20092590 |
| ISSN | 1424-8220 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/9/2590/htm |
| Download | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/9/2590/pdf (PDF) |
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This article should be considered a work in progress and incomplete. Consider this article incomplete until this notice is removed. |
Abstract
In a pandemic-related situation such as that caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the need for telemedicine and other distanced services becomes dramatically fundamental to reducing the movement of patients, and by extension reducing the risk of infection in healthcare settings. One potential avenue for achieving this is through leveraging cloud computing and internet of things (IoT) technologies. This paper proposes an IoT-connected laboratory service where clinical exams are performed on patients directly in a hospital by technicians through the use of IoT medical diagnostic devices, with results automatically being sent via the hospital's cloud to doctors of federated hospitals for validation and/or consultation. In particular, we discuss a distributed scenario where nurses, technicians, and medical doctors belonging to different hospitals cooperate through their federated hospital clouds to form a virtual health team able to carry out a healthcare workflow in secure fashion by leveraging the intrinsic security features of blockchain technology. In particular, both public and hybrid blockchain scenarios are discussed and assessed using the Ethereum platform.
Keywords: blockchain, smart contract, workflow, healthcare, hospital, cloud computing, IoT, federation
Introduction
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Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. Some grammar and punctuation was cleaned up to improve readability. The original title—Blockchain-Based Healthcare Workflow for Tele-Medical Laboratory in Federated Hospital IoT Clouds—was changed slightly as "tele-medical laboratory" is a confusing phrase that elicits thoughts of "telemedicine," which is not an accurate portrayal of the article. The new title intends to capture the true spirit of the concept, and this change was also propogated throughout this version of the article. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added.
