Consortium framework using blockchain for asthma healthcare in pandemics

Abstract

Asthma is a deadly disease that affects the lungs and air supply of the human body. Coronavirus and its variants also affect the airways of the lungs. Asthma patients approach hospitals mostly in a critical condition and require emergency treatment, which creates a burden on health institutions during pandemics. The similar symptoms of asthma and coronavirus create confusion for health workers during patient handling and treatment of disease. The unavailability of patient history to physicians causes complications in proper diagnostics and treatments. Many asthma patient deaths have been reported especially during pandemics, which necessitates an efficient framework for asthma patients. In this article, we have proposed a blockchain consortium healthcare framework for asthma patients. The proposed framework helps in managing asthma healthcare units, coronavirus patient records and vaccination centers, insurance companies, and government agencies, which are connected through the secure blockchain network. The proposed framework increases data security and scalability as it stores encrypted patient data on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and keeps data hash values on the blockchain. The patient data are traceable and accessible to physicians and stakeholders, which helps in accurate diagnostics, timely treatment, and the management of patients. The smart contract ensures the execution of all business rules. The patient profile generation mechanism is also discussed. The experiment results revealed that the proposed framework has better transaction throughput, query delay, and security than existing solutions.