Securing Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) Using Private Blockchain Network

Abstract

A key initiative taken by Government of India in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Digital India” move is the formation of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem for smart healthcare. Any security flaw occurring during authentication with a centralized environment affects the connectivity of devices in the network and the transaction of data in IoT. As a solution, Blockchain technology emerges to use in IoT network for the betterment. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is the collection of medical devices and applications that connect to healthcare IT systems. In IoMT environment, a private Blockchain network is created containing all the participants of a hospital including doctors, lab technicians, patients and clinical laboratories etc., There exists no necessity to carry the report by the patients during every visit, as the data is already available in the network. The data is completely decentralized to avoid failure, data loss and to provide faster recovery. Whenever a change is attempted by a third person in the database, a notification is sent to all the members of the group. Since this is a private Blockchain, it requires an additional level of authentication. Whenever any new person requires being a part of the network a document for proof is provided. The data is transparent, so any modification done by any member of the group will get notified to everyone. An additional level security can be provided for data transfer based upon the mutually agreed security parameter and any modification in database is accepted upon approval of all members. In addition, when a hospital is not able to provide any sophisticated treatment to the patient due to lack of medical facilities, recommendation is sent to the patient; thereby new hospital added to the private network after successful authentication to access patient’s record. To access record, quantum key may be generated and distributed across the network.