Park Yu Rang, Lee Eunsol, Na Wonjun, Park Sungjun, Lee Yura, Lee Jae-Ho
Department of Biomedical Systems Informatics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Clinical Research Center, Asan Institute of Life Sciences, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Feb 8;21(2):e12533. doi: 10.2196/12533.
There are many perspectives on the advantages of introducing blockchain in the medical field, but there are no published feasibility studies regarding the storage, propagation, and management of personal health records (PHRs) using blockchain technology.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of blockchains in the medical field in relation to transactions with and propagation of PHRs in a private blockchain.
We constructed a private blockchain network using Ethereum version 1.8.4 and conducted verification using the de-identified PHRs of 300 patients. The private blockchain network consisted of one hospital node and 300 patient nodes. In order to verify the effectiveness of blockchain-based PHR management, PHRs at a time were loaded in a transaction between the hospital and patient nodes and propagated to the whole network. We obtained and analyzed the time and gas required for data transaction and propagation on the blockchain network. For reproducibility, these processes were repeated 100 times.
Of 300 patient records, 74 (24.7%) were not loaded in the private blockchain due to the data block size of the transaction block. The remaining 226 individual health records were classified into groups A (80 patients with outpatient visit data less than 1 year old), B (84 patients with outpatient data from between 1 and 3 years before data collection), and C (62 patients with outpatient data 3 to 5 years old). With respect to mean transaction time in the blockchain, C (128.7 seconds) had the shortest time, followed by A (132.2 seconds) and then B (159.0 seconds). The mean propagation times for groups A, B, and C were 1494.2 seconds, 2138.9 seconds, and 4111.4 seconds, respectively; mean file sizes were 5.6 KB, 18.6 KB, and 45.38 KB, respectively. The mean gas consumption values were 1,900,767; 4,224,341; and 4,112,784 for groups A, B, and C, respectively.
This study confirms that it is possible to exchange PHR data in a private blockchain network. However, to develop a blockchain-based PHR platform that can be used in practice, many improvements are required, including reductions in data size, improved personal information protection, and reduced operating costs.
对于在医疗领域引入区块链的优势存在多种观点，但尚无关于使用区块链技术存储、传播和管理个人健康记录（PHR）的已发表可行性研究。
本研究旨在探讨区块链在医疗领域对于私有区块链中PHR交易和传播的有用性。
我们使用以太坊1.8.4版本构建了一个私有区块链网络，并使用300名患者的去标识化PHR进行验证。私有区块链网络由一个医院节点和300个患者节点组成。为了验证基于区块链的PHR管理的有效性，一次将PHR加载到医院和患者节点之间的交易中，并传播到整个网络。我们获取并分析了区块链网络上数据交易和传播所需的时间和燃气量。为了可重复性，这些过程重复了100次。
在300份患者记录中，由于交易块的数据块大小，有74份（24.7%）未加载到私有区块链中。其余226份个人健康记录分为A组（80名门诊就诊数据少于1年的患者）、B组（84名数据收集前1至3年有门诊数据的患者）和C组（62名门诊数据为3至5年的患者）。关于区块链中的平均交易时间，C组（128.7秒）最短，其次是A组（132.2秒），然后是B组（159.0秒）。A、B、C组的平均传播时间分别为1494.2秒、2138.9秒和4111.4秒；平均文件大小分别为5.6 KB、18.6 KB和45.38 KB。A、B、C组的平均燃气消耗值分别为1,900,767、4,224,341和4,112,784。
本研究证实了在私有区块链网络中交换PHR数据是可行的。然而，要开发一个可在实践中使用的基于区块链的PHR平台，还需要进行许多改进，包括减小数据大小、加强个人信息保护和降低运营成本。
