A Solution for Commercializing, Decentralizing and Storing Electronic Medical Records by Integrating Proxy Re-Encryption, IPFS, and Blockchain

Abstract: The rapid expansion of user medical records across global systems presents not only opportunities but also new challenges in maintaining effective application models that ensure user privacy, controllability, and the ability to commercialize patient medical records. Moreover, the proliferation of data analysis models in healthcare institutions necessitates the decentralization and restorability of medical record data. It is imperative that user medical data collected from these systems can be easily analyzed and utilized even years after collection, without the risk of data loss due to numerous factors. Additionally, medical information must be authorized by the data owner, granting patients the right to accept or decline data usage requests from medical research agencies. In response, we propose an innovative solution for implementing a decentralized system utilizing an EVM-compatible blockchain and IPFS for decentralized storage. To ensure privacy and control, we employ Proxy Re-Encryption (PRE), a cryptographic authorized method, within the medical data marketplace. Our proposed architecture significantly reduces costs associated with granting read access to healthcare research agencies by minimizing the encryption and decryption time of stored records. Furthermore, it empowers users with enhanced control over their health data through tamperproof blockchain smart contracts and IPFS, safeguarding the integrity and privacy of their medical records.