Generalizable Layered Blockchain Architecture for Health Care Applications: Development, Case Studies, and Evaluation

作者：Yan Zhuang, Yin-Wu Chen, Zon‐Yin Shae, Chi‐Ren Shyu · 发表于：Journal of Medical Internet Research · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.2196/19029 · 被引用次数：58 · 研究领域：Blockchain Technology Applications and Security、Big Data and Digital Economy、IoT and Edge/Fog Computing

BACKGROUND: Data coordination across multiple health care facilities has become increasingly important for many emerging health care applications. Distrust has been recognized as a key barrier to the success of such applications. Leveraging blockchain technology could provide potential solutions tobuild trust between data providers and receivers by taking advantage of blockchain properties such as security, immutability, anonymity, decentralization, and smart contracts. Many health technologies have empirically proven that blockchain designs fit well with the needs of health care applications with certain degrees of success. However, there is a lack of robust architecture to provide a practical framework for developers to implement applications and test the performance of stability, efficiency, and scalability using standard blockchain designs. A generalized blockchain model is needed for the health care community to adopt blockchain technology and develop applications in a timely fashion. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at building a generalized blockchain architecture that provides data coordination functions, including data requests, permission granting, data exchange, and usage tracking, for a wide spectrum of health care application developments. METHODS: An augmented, 3-layered blockchain architecture was built on a private blockchain network. The 3 layers, from bottom to top, are as follows: (1) incorporation of fundamental blockchain settings and smart contract design for...