Shuaib Khaled, Saleous Heba, Shuaib Karim, Zaki Nazar
College of Information Technology, United Arab Emirates University, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Street, P.O. Box 15551, Al Ain, UAE.
Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
J Pers Med. 2019 Jul 13;9(3):35. doi: 10.3390/jpm9030035.
Blockchain as an emerging technology has been gaining in popularity, with more possible applications to utilize the technology in the near future. With the offer of a decentralized, distributed environment without the need for a third trusted party (TTP), blockchains are being used to solve issues in systems that are susceptible to cyberattacks. One possible field that could benefit from blockchains that researchers have been focusing on is healthcare. Current healthcare information systems face several challenges, such as fragmented patient data, centralized systems which are viewed as single points of attacks, and the lack of patient-oriented services. In this paper, we investigate and analyze recent literature related to the use of blockchains to tackle issues found in modern healthcare information systems. This is done to understand issues that researchers commonly focus on, to discover remaining areas of concern in any proposed solution, and to understand the possible directions of the integration of blockchains in healthcare and personalized medicine. Background information regarding blockchains and existing healthcare information systems is reviewed, followed by the methodology used in the preparation of this review, where the research questions to consider are stated. Afterwards, an analysis of the results is provided, concluding with a discussion of the remaining issues that need to be focused on, and how blockchains could benefit the healthcare sector and empower personalized medicine.
区块链作为一种新兴技术，越来越受欢迎，在不久的将来有更多利用该技术的可能应用。由于区块链提供了一个无需第三方可信机构（TTP）的去中心化、分布式环境，它正被用于解决易受网络攻击的系统中的问题。研究人员一直关注的一个可能从区块链中受益的领域是医疗保健。当前的医疗信息系统面临着几个挑战，比如患者数据碎片化、被视为单点攻击目标的集中式系统，以及缺乏以患者为导向的服务。在本文中，我们调查并分析了近期与使用区块链解决现代医疗信息系统中存在的问题相关的文献。这样做是为了了解研究人员普遍关注的问题，发现任何提议解决方案中仍需关注的领域，并了解区块链在医疗保健和个性化医疗中整合的可能方向。回顾了关于区块链和现有医疗信息系统的背景信息，接着阐述了撰写本综述所采用的方法，并列出了要考虑的研究问题。之后，给出了结果分析，最后讨论了仍需关注的问题，以及区块链如何能使医疗保健领域受益并推动个性化医疗。
