The Possibilities of Blockchain Technology in Medicine (Review)
A blockchain technology representing a tool for data storage and transmission is briefly described in this review. Current trends of its development are also shown as well as currently known specific features and advantages of using the blockchain technology in medicine. The possibilities and prospects of applying the blockchain for solving some tasks in healthcare are analyzed. In addition, shortcomings and problems associated with the employment of this technology in medicine are also highlighted.
Though the majority of the projects for using the blockchain in medicine are now being only developed, a sufficient number of them have already been realized, there have appeared applications in blockchain. An interdisciplinary approach and collaboration of physicians with blockchain specialists will provide the opportunity to use the rapidly evolving digital technologies in the field of medicine.
- Nakamoto S. Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. URL: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.
- Savelyev I.E. Review article about the blockchain and its usage. Prikladnaya informatika 2016; 11(6): 19–24.
- Svon M. Blokcheyn: skhema novoy ekonomiki [Blockchain: a scheme of the new economy]. Moscow: Olimp-Biznes; 2016; 224 p.
- Collins R. Blockchain: a new architecture for digital content. EContent 2016; 39(8): 22–23.
- Chung M., Kim J. The internet information and technology research directions based on the fourth industrial revolution. KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems 2016; 10(3): 1311–1320, https://doi.org/10.3837/tiis.2016.03.020.
- Underwood S. Blockchain beyond bitcoin. Commun ACM 2016; 59(11): 15–17, https://doi.org/10.1145/2994581.
- Yli-Huumo J., Ko D., Choi S., Park S., Smolander K. Where is current research on blockchain technology? — A systematic review. PLoS One 2016; 11(10), e0163477, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163477.
- Agbo C.C., Mahmoud Q.H., Eklund J.M. Blockchain technology in healthcare: a systematic review. Healthcare 2019; 7(2): 56, https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7020056.
- Crosby M., Nachiappan, Pattanayak P., Verma S., Kalyanaraman V. Blockchain technology: beyond bitcoin. Applied Innovation Review 2016; 2: 6–10.
- Taylor P.J., Dargahi T., Dehghantanha A., Parizi R.M., Choo K.-K.R. A systematic literature review of blockchain cyber security. Digital Communications and Networks 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcan.2019.01.005.
- Zhang Y., Wen J. The IoT electric business model: using blockchain technology for the internet of things. Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications 2017; 10(4): 983–994, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-016-0456-1.
- Mogayar U., Buterin V. Blokcheyn dlya biznesa [Blockchain for business]. Moscow: Eksmo; 2017: 224 p.
- Krasikova E.M. Вlockchain: technology of the future. Alleya nauki 2018; 1(1): 219–224.
- Sadullaev H.H.U. The seven design principles of a blockchain economy. Alleya nauki 2018; 3(1): 911–913.
- Melnychenko O., Hartinger R. Role of blockchain technology in accounting and auditing. European Cooperation 2017; 9(28): 27–34.
- Knezevic D. Impact of blockchain technology platform in changing the financial sector and other industries. Montenegrin Journal of Economics 2018; 14(1): 109–120, https://doi.org/10.14254/1800-5845/2018.14-1.8.
- Biktimirov M.R., Domashev A.V., Cherkashin P.A., Shcherbakov A.Y. Blockchain technology: universal structure and requirements. Automatic Documentation and Mathematical Linguistics 2017; 51(6): 235–238, https://doi.org/10.3103/s0005105517060036.
- Pilkington M. Blockchain technology: principles and applications. In: Olleros F.X., Zhegu M. (editors). Research handbook on digital transformations. Edward Elgar Publishing; 2016; p. 225–253, https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784717766.00019.
- Tapscott D., Tapscott A. Blockchain revolution: how the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world. New York: Penguin; 2016; 386 p.
- Sharples M., Domingue J. A distributed system for educational record, reputation and reward. In: Adaptive and adaptable learning. Springer, Cham; 2016; p. 490–496, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45153-4_48.
- Chasovskikh V.P., Labunets V.G., Voronov M.P. Blockchain technology in education of universities and the digital economy. Eko-potentsial 2017; 2(18): 99–105.
- Skiba D.J. The potential of blockchain in education and health care. Nursing education perspectives 2017; 38(4): 220–221, https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nep.0000000000000190.
- Hoy M.B. An introduction to the blockchain and its implications for libraries and medicine. Medical reference services quarterly 2017; 36(3): 273–279, https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2017.1332261.
- De la Rosa J., Torres-Padrosa V., El-Fakdi A., Gibovic D., Hornyák O., Maicher L., Miralles F. A survey of blockchain technologies for open innovation. In: Proceedings of the 4rd Annual World Open Innovation Conference, WOIC 2017. San Francisco, USA; 2017. URL: http://eia.udg.edu/~aelfakdi/papers/woic17.pdf.
- Tao X. Research on the development and significance of “Blockchain+” education. Journal of Distance Education 2017; 2: 003.
- Dettling W. How to teach blockchain in a business school. In: Business information systems and technology 4.0. Springer, Cham; 2018; p. 213–225, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74322-6_14.
- Gaetani E., Aniello L., Baldoni R., Lombardi F., Margheri A., Sassone V. Blockchain-based database to ensure data integrity in cloud computing environments. In: Proceedings of the First Italian Conference on Cybersecurity (ITASEC17). Venice, Italy; 2017; p. 146–155. URL: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1816/paper-15.pdf.
- Rimba P., Tran A.B., Weber I., Staples M., Ponomarev A., Xu X. Comparing blockchain and cloud services for business process execution. In: IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture, ICSA 2017. Gothenburg, Sweden; 2017; p. 257–260, https://doi.org/10.1109/icsa.2017.44.
- Kshetri N. Can blockchain strengthen the internet of things? IT Professional 2017; 19(4): 68–72, https://doi.org/10.1109/mitp.2017.3051335.
- Ayed A.B. A conceptual secure blockchain-based electronic voting system. International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications 2017; 9(3): 1–9, https://doi.org/10.5121/ijnsa.2017.9301.
- Lee K., James J.I., Ejeta T.G., Kim H.J. Electronic voting service using block-chain. Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law 2016; 11(2), https://doi.org/10.15394/jdfsl.2016.1383.
- Noizat P. Blockchain electronic vote. In: Chuen D.L.K. (editor). Handbook of digital currency. Bitcoin, innovation, financial instruments, and big data. Elsevier; 2015; p. 453–461, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-802117-0.00022-9.
- Shrier D., Wu W., Pentland A. Blockchain & infrastructure (identity, data security). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Connection Science; 2016. URL: https://www.getsmarter.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mit_blockchain_and_infrastructure_report.pdf.
- Zeilinger M. Digital art as “Monetised Graphics”: enforcing intellectual property on the blockchain. Philosophy & Technology 2018; 31(1): 15–41, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-016-0243-1.
- Tsai W.T., Feng L., Zhang H., You Y., Wang L., Zhong Y. Intellectual-property blockchain-based protection model for microfilms. In: IEEE International Symposium on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE). San Francisco, USA; 2017; p. 174–178, https://doi.org/10.1109/sose.2017.35.
- Blokcheyn [Blockchain]. URL: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Блокчейн.
- Onlayn-kurs po Blockchain [Blockchain online course]. URL: https://distributedlab.com/online-course.
- Popper N. Tsifrovoe zoloto. Neveroyatnaya istoriya Bitkoyna, ili kak idealisty i biznesmeny izobretayut den’gi zanovo [Digital gold. Incredible story of Bitcoin, or how idealists and businessmen invent money anew]. Moscow: Dialektika; 2018; 368 p.
- Vigna P., Kasey M. Epokha kriptovalyut. Kak bitkoin i blokcheyn menyayut mirovoy ekonomicheskiy poryadok [Gold reserves. Why gold, not Bitcoins, is the currency of the XXI century?]. Moscow: Mann, Ivanov i Ferber; 2017; 432 p.
- Rikards D. Zolotoy zapas. Pochemu zoloto, a ne bitkoiny — valyuta XXI veka? [The age of cryptocurrency. How bitcoin and the blockchain are challenging the global economic order]. Moscow: Eksmo; 2017; 192 p.
- Raval S. Detsentralizovannye prilozheniya. Tekhnologiya blockchain v deystvii [Decentralized applications. Blockchain technology in action]. Saint Petersburg: Piter; 2017; 240 p.
- Antonopoulos A.M. The Internet of money. Merkle Bloom LLC; 2016; 150 p.
- Champagne P. The book of Satoshi: the collected writings of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. USA: e53 Publishing LLC; 2014; 394 p.
- Mannaro К., Pinna А., Marchesi М. Crypto-trading: blockchain-oriented energy market. In: AEIT International Annual Conference. Cagliari, Italy; 2017, https://doi.org/10.23919/aeit.2017.8240547.
- Akulich M. Blockchain dlya marketinga [Blockchain for marketing]. 2019. URL: https://fictionbook.ru/author/margarita_akulich/blockchain_dlya_marketinga/read_online.html.
- Sikorski J.J., Haughton J., Kraft M. Blockchain technology in the chemical industry: machine-to-machine electricity market. Applied Energy 2017; 195: 234–246, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.03.039.
- Zaslavsky A.A. Prospects for the use of blockchain algorithms to ensure security in the management of the educational organization. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Informatizatsiya obrazovaniya 2018; 15(1): 101–106, https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-8631-2018-15-1-101-106.
- Borioli G.S., Couturier J. How blockchain technology can improve the outcomes of clinical trials. British Journal of Healthcare Management 2018; 24(3): 156–162, https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2018.24.3.156.
- Roman-Belmonte J.M., De la Corte-Rodriguez H., Rodriguez-Merchan E.C. How blockchain technology can change medicine. Postgrad Med 2018; 130(4): 420–427, https://doi.org/10.1080/00325481.2018.1472996.
- Hoy M.B. An introduction to the blockchain and its implications for libraries and medicine. Med Ref Serv Q 2017; 36(3): 273–279, https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2017.1332261.
- Dubovitskaya A., Xu Z., Ryu S., Schumacher M., Wang F. How blockchain could empower e-health: an application for radiation oncology. In: Begoli E., Wang F., Luo G. (editors). Data management and analytics for medicine and healthcare. DMAH 2017. Lecture notes in computer science. Springer, Cham; 2017; p. 3–6, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67186-4_1.
- Rabah K. Challenges & opportunities for blockchain powered healthcare systems. A review. Mara Research Journal of Medicine & Health Sciences 2017; 1(1): 45–52.
- Liu P.T.S. Medical record system using blockchain, big data and tokenization. In: Lam K.-Y., Chi C.-H., Qing S. (editors). Information and communications security. ICICS 2016. Lecture notes in computer science. Springer, Cham; 2016; p. 254–261, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50011-9_20.
- Dubovitskaya A., Novotny P., Xu Z., Wang F. Applications of blockchain technology for data-sharing in oncology: results from a systematic literature review. Oncology 2019; 3: 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1159/000504325.
- Huckle S., Bhattacharya R., White M., Beloff N. Internet of things. Blockchain and shared economy applications. Procedia Computer Science 2016; 98: 461–466, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.074.
- Kulikov N.I., Kudryavtseva Yu.V. Banks on the threshold of the new technological revolution. Voprosy sovremennoy nauki i praktiki 2017; 2(64): 69–78.
- Pazaitis A., De Filippi P., Kostakis V. Blockchain and value systems in the sharing economy: the illustrative case of backfeed. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 2017; 125: 105–115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.05.025.
- Alexandrikova I., Kozlova E. Bitcoin as a new instrument of financial services. Teoriya i praktika sovremennoy nauki 2017; 6(24): 48–51.
- Lelu L. Blokcheyn ot A do Ya: vse o tekhnologii desyatiletiya [Blockchain from A to Z: all about technology of the decade]. Moscow: Bombora; 2018; 256 p.
- Dresher D. Osnovy blokcheyna [Blockchain basics]. Moscow: DMK Press; 2018; 312 p.
- Popov V. Blokcheyn filosofiya [Blockchain philosophy]. 2018. URL: https://www.litres.ru/vladimir-popov-7629101/blokcheyn-filosofiya-chast-i.
- Shuaib K., Saleous H., Shuaib K., Zaki N. Blockchains for secure digitized medicine. J Pers Med 2019; 9(3): 35, https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm9030035.
- Kraft D. Difficulty control for blockchain-based consensus systems. Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications 2016; 9(2): 397–413, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-015-0347-x.
- Kuo T.T., Kim H.E., Ohno-Machado L. Blockchain distributed ledger technologies for biomedical and health care applications. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2017; 24(6): 1211–1220, https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocx068.
- Telegram open network. URL: https://ru.ton-telegram.net/.
- Dannen C. Introducing Ethereum and Solidity. Foundations of cryptocurrency and blockchain programming for beginners. New York, Apress; 2017; 185 p., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2535-6.
- Diedrich H. Ethereum: blockchains, digital assets, smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform; 2016; 360 p.
- Tsyganov S.N., Tugolukova A.V. Vozmozhnosti primeneniya tekhnologii blokcheyn v zdravookhranenii. V kn.: Perspektivy razvitiya nauki i obrazovaniya [The possibilities of using blockchain technology in healthcare. In: Prospects for the development of science and education]. Moscow: IP Tugolukov A.V.; 2017; p. 123–126.
- URL: https://vademec.ru/news/2017/09/06/elektronnye-meditsinskie-karty-rossiyan-budut-khranit-po-printsipu-blokcheyn/.
- Blokcheyn dlya elektronnykh meditsinskikh kart [Blockchain for electronic medical records]. URL: https://medicalchain.com/ru/.
- BurstIQ Receives Frost & Sullivan 2019 Best Practice Award for Healthcare Data Management. URL: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/burstiq-receives-frost-sullivan-2019-133000808.html.
- Roehrs A., da Costa С.A., da Rosa Righi R. OmniPHR: a distributed architecture model to integrate personal health records. J Biomed Inform 2017; 71: 70–81, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2017.05.012.
- Yoon H.J. Blockchain technology and healthcare. Healthcare Informatics Research 2019; 25(2): 59–60, https://doi.org/10.4258/hir.2019.25.2.59.
- Azaria A., Ekblaw A., Vieira T., Lippman A. MedRec: using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. In: International Conference on Open and Big Data (OBD). Vienna, Austria; 2016, https://doi.org/10.1109/obd.2016.11.
- Trust, confidence and verifiable data audit. URL: https://deepmind.com/blog/trust-confidence-verifiable-data-audit/.
- Doc.ai. URL: https://doc.ai.
- Open Longevity. Клинические исследования по инициативе пациентов. Klinicheskie issledovaniya po initsiative patsientov [Clinical trials initiated by patients]. URL: https://medium.com/open-longevity/.
- Robomed. URL: https://robo-med.com.
- Doctor Smart. URL: http://doctorsmart.vc/ru.
- Bioritm-braslet [Biorhythm bracelet]. URL: https://www.tokendesk.io/ico/bioritmai.
- Zenome. A first decentralized Internet of genomic data and services. URL: https://zenome.io/.
- ARNA genomics. URL: https://arna.bio/en/.
- Benchoufi M., Ravaud P. Blockchain technology for improving clinical research quality. Trials 2017; 18(1): 335, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-017-2035-z.
- Baunm S. Health IT startups working to secure pharma supply chains? URL: http://medcitynews.com/2017/01/drug-supply-chain-...
- Hussien H.M., Yasin S.M., Udzir S.N., Zaidan A.A., Zaidan B.B. A systematic review for enabling of develop a blockchain technology in healthcare application: taxonomy, substantially analysis, motivations, challenges, recommendations and future direction. J Med Syst 2019; 43(10): 320, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1445-8.
- Belyaev A.M., Stilidi I.S., Kaprin A.D., Lichinitser M.R., Mescheryakov A.A., Semiglazov V.F., Imyanitov E.N., Semiglazova T.Yu., Poltoratsky A.N., Konstantinov L.V., Petrusenko I.A., Nikitin O.I., Zakharov K.A., Trifonov M.I., Plakhov D.N. Blockchain in health сare: opportunities for use in clinical trials. Lechebnoe delo 2018; 2: 100–105.
- Chang M.C., Hsiao M.Y., Boudier-Revéret M. Blockchain technology: efficiently managing medical information in the pain management field. Pain Med 2019, https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnz261.
- Bhattacharya S., Singh A., Hossain M.M. Strengthening public health surveillance through blockchain technology. AIMS Public Health 2019; 6(3): 326–333, https://doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2019.3.326.
- Johnson M., Jones M., Shervey M., Dudley J.T., Zimmerman N. Building a secure biomedical data sharing decentralized app (DApp): tutorial. J Med Internet Res 2019; 21(10): e13601, https://doi.org/10.2196/13601.
- Balis C., Tagopoulos I., Dimola K. Moving towards a blockchain-based healthcare information system. Stud Health Technol Inform 2019; 262: 168–171, https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI190044.
- Mackey T.K., Kuo T.T., Gummadi B., Clauson K.A., Church G., Grishin D., Obbad K., Barkovich R., Palombini M. ‘Fit-for-purpose?’ — challenges and opportunities for applications of blockchain technology in the future of healthcare. BMC Med 2019; 17(1): 68, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1296-7.
- Kuo T.T., Zavaleta Rojas H., Ohno-Machado L. Comparison of blockchain platforms: a systematic review and healthcare examples. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2019; 26(5): 462–478, https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocy185.
- Drosatos G., Kaldoudi E. Blockchain applications in the biomedical domain: a scoping review. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2019; 17: 229–240, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbj.2019.01.010.
- Litvin A.A., Litvin V.A. Clinical decision support systems for surgery. Novosti khirurgii 2014; 22(1): 96–100.
- Clinical decision support: the road ahead. Greenes R.A. (editor). Boston: Elsevier Academic Press; 2007; 581 p.
- O’Donoghue O., Vazirani A.A., Brindley D., Meinert E. Design choices and trade-offs in health care blockchain implementations: systematic review. J Med Internet Res 2019; 21(5): e12426, https://doi.org/10.2196/12426.
- Kobrinsky B.A. Decision support systems in public health services and training. Vrach i informatsionnye tekhnologii 2010; 2: 39–45.
- Krittanawong C., Rogers A.J., Aydar M., Choi E., Johnson K.W., Wang Z., Narayan S.M. Integrating blockchain technology with artificial intelligence for cardiovascular medicine. Nat Rev Cardiol 2019, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0294-y.
- Mamoshina P. Ojomoko L., Yanovich Y., Ostrovski A., Botezatu A., Prikhodko P., Izumchenko E., Aliper A., Romantsov K., Zhebrak A., Ogu I.O., Zhavoronkov A. Converging blockchain and next-generation artificial intelligence technologies to decentralize and accelerate biomedical research and healthcare. Oncotarget 2018; 9(5): 5665–5690, https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.22345.