Blockchain in Healthcare 2.0

Lead Researcher | Undergraduate Thesis Project

Project Overview

An advanced blockchain framework designed specifically for healthcare data management that incorporates sharding, Layer-2 solutions, and a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) ledger structure to address scalability, security, and privacy challenges in healthcare information systems.

Blockchain Healthcare Architecture

Multi-layered blockchain architecture for healthcare data with sharding and privacy-preserving computation

Key Innovations

• Advanced Blockchain Architecture: Implemented a hybrid blockchain model combining sharding techniques for horizontal scaling, Layer-2 protocols for transaction throughput, and a DAG ledger structure for reduced consensus bottlenecks.
• Patient-Centric Consent Management: Designed a granular consent system allowing patients to control access to specific portions of their medical records with time-bound permissions and purpose limitations.
• Healthcare Standards Integration: Incorporated HL7 FHIR standards for semantic interoperability across healthcare systems while maintaining blockchain’s immutability and audit capabilities.
• Privacy-Preserving Computation: Implemented zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party computation to enable analysis of healthcare data without exposing sensitive patient information.
• Smart Contract Automation: Developed healthcare-specific smart contracts for automated insurance claims processing, clinical trial consent management, and drug supply chain verification.

Technical Implementation

1. Core Blockchain Layer – Custom DAG-based distributed ledger with modified consensus protocol optimized for healthcare verification workflows.
2. Sharding Implementation – Geographic and data-type based sharding to parallelize transaction processing while maintaining cross-shard consistency.
3. Layer-2 Scaling Solutions – State channels and rollups for high-throughput healthcare data transactions with periodic main-chain reconciliation.
4. FHIR Integration Layer – Healthcare data models and APIs built on HL7 FHIR resources with blockchain-backed verification.
5. Privacy Framework – Zero-knowledge proof implementation for privacy-preserving medical data verification without disclosure.

Performance Benchmarks

Research Impact

This research addresses critical limitations in applying blockchain technology to healthcare, particularly around scalability, privacy, and standards compliance. The framework provides a practical architecture for deploying blockchain-based health information systems that can operate at national scale while preserving patient privacy and data security.

Future Directions

Extending the framework to support AI/ML analytics on encrypted health data, implementing cross-border health data exchange protocols, and developing governance frameworks for decentralized healthcare networks that balance innovation with regulatory compliance.