Leveraging Blockchain for Secure and Transparent Healthcare Data Management: Enhancing Patient Privacy and Interoperability in Medical Systems

Healthcare is undergoing a large amount of digital innovation, yet problems in managing healthcare data persists posed by fears of data security, patient privacy, and with the interoperability of health systems. Blockchain, as a decentralised and transparent platform with immutable encrypted records, may deal effectively with aforementioned issues. In this work, we explore the applicability of blockchain technology to address the limitations under the current healthcare data management, with a specific focus on the patient privacy protection and the seamless cross-hospital interoperability, and the develop our solution accordingly. Through the implementation of blockchain technology, this project seeks to provide a secure data repository, empowering patients through data access permissions, and establishing efficient mechanisms for interoperable data across systems. The paper analyses the major advantages offered by blockchain in healthcare, such as threats mitigation (minimising the risk of data breaches) and optimisation of data sharing mechanisms, and evaluates the obstacles that prevent its implementation, including regulatory and technological ones. Moreover, the study focuses on future applications and also presents a roadmap and strategy to successfully implement blockchain technology in healthcare. The results demonstrate the disruptive capability of blockchain in the enhancement of healthcare data handling.