Integrated Edge Computing and Blockchain: A General Medical Data Sharing Framework

Abstract

Medical data sharing is crucial to enhance diagnostic efficiency and improve the quality of medical data analysis. However, related endeavors face obstacles due to insufficient collaboration among medical institutions, and traditional cloud-based sharing platforms lead to concerns regarding security and privacy. To overcome these challenges, the paper introduces MSNET, a novel framework that seamlessly combines blockchain and edge computing. Data traceability and access control are ensured by employing blockchain as a security layer. The blockchain stores only data summaries instead of complete medical data, thus enhancing scalability and transaction efficiency. The raw medical data are securely processed on edge servers within each institution, with data standardization and keyword extraction. To facilitate data access and sharing among institutions, smart contracts are designed to promote transparency and data accuracy. Moreover, a supervision mechanism is established to maintain a trusted environment, provide reliable evidence against dubious data-sharing practices, and encourage institutions to share data voluntarily. This novel framework effectively overcomes the limitations of traditional blockchain solutions, offering an efficient and secure method for medical data sharing and thereby fostering collaboration and innovation in the healthcare industry.