Volume 16, Number 3

Blockchain Enforced Attribute based Access Control with ZKP for Healthcare Service

  Authors

Dongju Lee¹ and Hyunsung Kim^1,2, ¹Kyungil University, Korea, ²University of Malawi, Malawi

  Abstract

The relationship between doctors and patients is reinforced through the expanded communication channels provided by remote healthcare services, resulting in heightened patient satisfaction and loyalty. Nonetheless, the growth of these services is hampered by security and privacy challenges they confront. Additionally, patient electronic health records (EHR) information is dispersed across multiple hospitals in different formats, undermining data sovereignty. It allows any service to assert authority over their EHR, effectively controlling its usage. This paper proposes a blockchain enforced attribute-based access control in healthcare service. To enhance the privacy and data-sovereignty, the proposed system employs attribute-based access control, zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) and blockchain. The role of data within our system is pivotal in defining attributes. These attributes, in turn, form the fundamental basis for access control criteria. Blockchain is used to keep hospital information in public chain but EHR related data in private chain. Furthermore, EHR provides access control by using the attributed based cryptosystem before they are stored in the blockchain. Analysis shows that the proposed system provides data sovereignty with privacy provision based on the attributed based access control.

  Keywords

Healthcare service, Blockchain, Access control, Authentication, Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof.