Blockchain in healthcare and IoT: A systematic literature review

Modelling of queuing systems using blockchain based on Markov process for smart healthcare systems

Queueing theory employs mathematical analysis to establish effectiveness metrics. Optimization models are then formulated using significant and efficient measures, such as data, to ascertain system efficiency and requirements. Each queuing system represents a discrete event system problem, and simulating these systems aids in addressing challenges and conducting practical performance analysis. Blockchain offers various benefits, including redistribution, accessibility, durability, reliability, constancy, anonymity, auditability, and data security. Its applications span across cryptocurrencies, financial services, reputation management, the 'Internet of Things', the sharing economy, and social and community services. Notably, foundational theory is increasingly pertinent in the blockchain field. For instance, performance analysis and optimization of blockchain systems rely on mathematical models like Markov processes and queueing theory. In smart healthcare, blockchain technology enhances disease diagnosis, patient care, and overall quality of life. Due to the substantial patient data stored on blockchain in smart healthcare architectures, queueing models are indispensable for efficient data processing. This paper leverages Markov chains to establish queueing theory for blockchain systems and assess the performance of smart healthcare architecture. A "Markovian-batch-service" queueing framework is devised for this purpose, modeling input and processing parameters essential for reliable queuing network simulations.

Digital solutions for migrant and refugee health: a framework for analysis and action

Digital technologies can help support the health of migrants and refugees and facilitate research on their health issues. However, ethical concerns include security and confidentiality of information; informed consent; how to engage migrants in designing, implementing and researching digital tools; inequitable access to mobile devices and the internet; and access to health services for early intervention and follow-up. Digital technical solutions do not necessarily overcome problems that are political, social, or economic. There are major deficits with regard to (1) reliable data on the health needs of migrants and mobile populations and on how they can use digital tools to support their health; (2) evidence on effectiveness of solutions; and (3) a broad framework to guide future work. This article provides a wide socio-technical perspective, as a framework for analysis and developing coherent agendas across global-to-local spaces, with particular attention to the European region.

Enhancing data security and privacy in energy applications: Integrating IoT and blockchain technologies

The integration of blockchain technology with the IoToffers numerous opportunities to enhance the privacy, security, and integrity. This study comprehensively analyze the challenges, scope, and potential solutions associated with integrating blockchain technology and the IoT, with a specific emphasis on nuclear energy applications. We discuss the roles and various aspects of blockchain and the IoT, highlighting their multiple dimensions and applications. Our study develops a secure data management framework that incorporates encryption, integrity verification, an integrated communication network, and a robust data flow architecture. We explore the several aspects of data security, privacy, and integrity, along with the potential solutions in the integration of blockchain and IoT. The study also investigates the secure transaction process, with a specific focus on cryptographic, mathematical, and algorithmic perspectives. We demonstrated the use of blockchain technology in the nuclear energy sector using flow charts, comprehensively addressing the associated security and privacy concerns. While emphasizing the applicability of our methodology to the nuclear sector, we also acknowledge limitations such as requirements for practical validation, challenges with resource-constrained IoT environments, increasing cyberthreats, and limited real-time data availability. The future scope of our study focuses on standardization, scalable blockchain, post-quantum cryptography, privacy, regulations, real-world testbeds, and deep learning for nuclear sector security. Our findings highlight that the integration of blockchain and IoT can significantly enhance the security and privacy of nuclear energy applications, although practical validation and optimization are necessary.

A bibliometric analysis of IoT applications in logistics and supply chain management

The rapid integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) into logistics and supply chain management (SCM) marks a significant transformation towards enhanced efficiencies, security, and sustainability. Through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 2680 publications from the Scopus database, this study charts the evolution of IoT within logistics and SCM and reveals a shift from foundational explorations to mature implementations. The research unfolds a complex thematic structure, highlighting the revolutionary impacts of IoT and related technologies such as RFID, the synergy of Industry 4.0 with SCM through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the strategic role of blockchain for enhanced traceability and security, and the advent of novel communication and encryption technologies for secure data exchanges. Further, the analysis categorizes the scholarly discourse into critical areas including big data and IoT optimization in SCM, IoT-driven innovation in the food supply chain, applications of blockchain and smart contracts, digital transformation through Industry 4.0, security advancements with intelligent systems, and the exploration of advanced technologies for Industry 4.0 and 5.0. This review not only delineates the intellectual landscape of IoT applications in logistics and SCM but also identifies emerging research areas such as blockchain integration, 5G potential, and AI-driven optimizations, suggesting pathways for future research to broaden the understanding in this dynamically evolving field. It serves as an essential resource for academics and practitioners, providing insights into the transformative role of IoT in logistics and SCM and proposing directions for future technological and academic endeavors.

Biomedical blockchain with practical implementations and quantitative evaluations: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Blockchain has emerged as a potential data-sharing structure in healthcare because of its decentralization, immutability, and traceability. However, its use in the biomedical domain is yet to be investigated comprehensively, especially from the aspects of implementation and evaluation, by existing blockchain literature reviews. To address this, our review assesses blockchain applications implemented in practice and evaluated with quantitative metrics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This systematic review adapts the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to review biomedical blockchain papers published by August 2023 from 3 databases. Blockchain application, implementation, and evaluation metrics were collected and summarized.

RESULTS

Following screening, 11 articles were included in this review. Articles spanned a range of biomedical applications including COVID-19 medical data sharing, decentralized internet of things (IoT) data storage, clinical trial management, biomedical certificate storage, electronic health record (EHR) data sharing, and distributed predictive model generation. Only one article demonstrated blockchain deployment at a medical facility.

DISCUSSION

Ethereum was the most common blockchain platform. All but one implementation was developed with private network permissions. Also, 8 articles contained storage speed metrics and 6 contained query speed metrics. However, inconsistencies in presented metrics and the small number of articles included limit technological comparisons with each other.

CONCLUSION

While blockchain demonstrates feasibility for adoption in healthcare, it is not as popular as currently existing technologies for biomedical data management. Addressing implementation and evaluation factors will better showcase blockchain's practical benefits, enabling blockchain to have a significant impact on the health sector.

Identifying the Barriers to Acceptance of Blockchain-Based Patient-Centric Data Management Systems in Healthcare

A number of recent studies have shown that wastage and inefficiency are a significant problem in all global healthcare systems. One initiative that could radically improve the operational efficiency of health systems is to make a paradigm shift in data ownership-that is, to transition such systems to a patient-centric model of data management by deploying blockchain technology. Such a development would not only make an economic impact, by radically cutting wastage, but would deliver significant social benefits by improving patient outcomes and satisfaction. However, a blockchain-based solution presents considerable challenges. This research seeks to understand the principal factors, which act as barriers to the acceptance of a blockchain-based patient-centric data management infrastructure, in the healthcare systems of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. The study represents an addition to the current literature by examining the perspectives and views of healthcare professionals and users. This approach is rare within this subject area, and is identified in existing systematic reviews as a research gap: a qualitative investigation of motivations and attitudes among these groups is a critical need. The results of the study identified 12 key barriers to the acceptance of blockchain infrastructures, thereby adding to our understanding of the challenges that need to be overcome in order to benefit from this relatively recent technology. The research is expected to be of use to healthcare authorities in planning a way forward for system improvement, particularly in terms of successfully introducing patient-centric systems.

Discussing blockchain applications in TED Talks: A fashion wave approach to understanding the blockchain phenomenon

Since its first appearance as the infrastructure supporting Bitcoin, blockchain has received different waves of attention from practitioners and academics. Besides the degree of interest, the attention to blockchain has often focused not merely on its own potential and characteristics but on its applications field. However, looking at its application and deployment in domains other than cryptocurrency or the nascent non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology does not seem to be widely adopted or is still in its early stages. Given this, we are interested in how managers and the general public are informed about new technology other than through academic papers or the specialized press. In this paper, we analyze how blockchain has been presented by speakers invited to give TED and TEDx Talks to identify the most common terms used to present blockchain in these talks using a multi-methods approach (qualitative analysis and big data analysis) and see if the discourse surrounding blockchain has shifted over time. The results of this study show how the different perspectives brought by broadcasters like TED often overshadow a technological innovation like the blockchain in its evolution and application by the fact that the focus is instead shifted to products and services built on it. Also, this study shows how different degrees of attention and expertise are associated with each fashion wave of new or emergent technology innovations.

Comprehensive review for healthcare data quality challenges in blockchain technology

There are several features inherent in blockchain, including decentralized storage, distributed ledger, immutability, security and authentication, and it has shifted away from the hype to be used practically in different industries, such as in the healthcare sector. The use of blockchain technology has allowed the provision of improved services to industries. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the use of blockchain is influenced by data quality issues in the healthcare industry. The article is structured as a systematic literature review study that uses several articles issued in various databases from 2016 onwards. In this review study, 65 articles were chosen and grouped into a single key aspect of the challenge in the healthcare sector. The findings obtained were analyzed based on factors in three domains, classified as issues pertinent to the adoption, operational and technological domains. This review study aims to use the findings to provide support to the practitioners, stakeholders and professionals, whose purpose is to carry out and manage transformation projects pertinent to blockchain in the field of healthcare. In addition, the organizations would be facilitated in their decision-making processes when the potential blockchain users are made to comprehend the implicit factors related to blockchain.

The Potential of Blockchain Technology in Dental Healthcare: A Literature Review

Blockchain technology in the healthcare industry has potential to enable enhanced privacy, increased security, and an interoperable data record. Blockchain technology is being implemented in dental care systems to store and share medical information, improve insurance claims, and provide innovative dental data ledgers. Because the healthcare sector is a large and ever-growing industry, the use of blockchain technology would have many benefits. To improve dental care delivery, researchers advocate using blockchain technology and smart contracts due to their numerous advantages. In this research, we concentrate on blockchain-based dental care systems. In particular, we examine the current research literature, pinpoint issues with existing dental care systems, and consider how blockchain technology may be used to address these issues. Finally, the limitations of the proposed blockchain-based dental care systems are discussed which may be regarded as open issues.

Tracing drugs from discovery to disposal

The life cycle of a drug begins with discovery and ends with its disposal. Drug discovery companies, drug manufacturers, regulatory agencies, suppliers, pharmacies, patients, healthcare providers, and many more are involved in this process. Transparency, traceability, automation, and data security are some of the most crucial factors affecting how effectively and safely the transactions are conducted across all parties involved in the cycle. By contrast, scalability, energy consumption, regulation, standards, and complexity hamper the adoption of new technology that is expected to fulfil these requirements. Here, we highlight how blockchain technology can track, accelerate, and boost the efficiency of incredibly complicated operations, such as pharmaceutical development.

Sharing Health Information Using a Blockchain

Data sharing in the health sector represents a big problem due to privacy and security issues. Health data have tremendous value for organisations and criminals. The European Commission has classified health data as a unique resource owing to their ability to enable both retrospective and prospective research at a low cost. Similarly, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) encourages member nations to create and implement health data governance systems that protect individual privacy while allowing data sharing. This paper proposes adopting a blockchain framework to enable the transparent sharing of medical information among health entities in a secure environment. We develop a laboratory-based prototype using a design science research methodology (DSRM). This approach has its roots in the sciences of engineering and artificial intelligence, and its primary goal is to create relevant artefacts that add value to the fields in which they are used. We adopt a patient-centric approach, according to which a patient is the owner of their data and may allow hospitals and health professionals access to their data.

Role of 5G Networks in Healthcare Management System

The present-day healthcare system operates on a 4G network, where the data rate needed for many IoT devices is impossible. Also, the latency involved in the network does not support the use of many devices in the network. The 5G-based cellular technology promises an effective healthcare management system with high speed and low latency. The 5G communication technology will replace the 4G technology to satisfy the increasing demand for high data rates. It incorporates higher frequency bands of around 100 MHz using millimetre waves and broadband modulation schemes. It is aimed at providing low latency while supporting real-time machine-to-machine communication. It requires a more significant number of antennas, with an average base station density three times higher than 4G. However, the rise in circuit and processing power for multiple antennas and transceivers deteriorates energy efficiency. Also, the data transmission power for 5G is three times higher than for 4G technology. One of the advanced processors used in today's mobile equipment is NVIDIA Tegra, which has a multicore system on chip (SoC) architecture with two ARM Cortex CPU cores to handle audio, images, and video. The state-of-the-art software coding using JAVA or Python has achieved smooth data transmission from mobile equipment, desktop or laptop through the internet with the support of 5G communication technology. This paper discusses some key areas related to 5G-based healthcare systems such as the architecture, antenna designs, power consumption, file protocols, security, and health implications of 5G networks.

Blockchain technology applications in the health domain: a multivocal literature review

Blockchain technology has been changing the nature of several businesses, from supply chain management to electronic record management systems and copyright management to healthcare applications. It provides a resilient and secure platform for modifications due to its distributed and shared nature and cryptographic functions. Each new technology, however, comes with its challenges alongside its opportunities. Previously, we performed a systematic literature review (SLR) to explore how blockchain technology potentially benefits health domain applications. The previous SLR included 27 formal literature papers from 2016 to 2020. Noticing that blockchain technology is rapidly growing, we extended the previous SLR with a multivocal literature review (MLR) approach to present the state of the art in this study. We focused on understanding to what degree blockchain could answer the challenges inherited in the health domain and whether blockchain technology may bring new challenges to health applications. The MLR consists of 78 sources of formal literature and 23 sources of gray literature from 2016 to 2021. As a result of this study, we specified 17 health domain challenges that can be categorized into four groups: (i) meeting regulatory requirements and public health surveillance, (ii) ensuring security and privacy, (iii) ensuring interoperability, and (iv) preventing waste of resources. The analysis shows that blockchain makes significant contributions to the solutions of these challenges. However, 10 new pitfalls come with adopting the technology in the health domain: the inability to delete sensitive data once it is added to a chain, limited ability to keep large-scale data in a blockchain, and performance issues. The data we extracted during the MLR is available in a publicly accessible online repository.

Blockchain for Modern Applications: A Survey

Blockchain is a modern technology that has revolutionized the way society interacts and trades. It could be defined as a chain of blocks that stores information with digital signatures in a distributed and decentralized network. This technique was first adopted for the creation of digital cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, research and industrial studies have recently focused on the opportunities that blockchain provides in various other application domains to take advantage of the main features of this technology, such as: decentralization, persistency, anonymity, and auditability. This paper reviews the use of blockchain in several interesting fields, namely: finance, healthcare, information systems, wireless networks, Internet of Things, smart grids, governmental services, and military/defense. In addition, our paper identifies the challenges to overcome, to guarantee better use of this technology.