Decentralized Identity Management for E-Health Applications: State-of-the-Art and Guidance for Future Work

Authors: Abylay Satybaldy, Anton Hasselgren, Mariusz Nowostawski

Background: The increasing usage of various online services requires an efficient digital identity management approach. Unfortunately, the original Internet protocols were not designed with built-in identity management, which creates challenges related to privacy, security, and usability. There is an increasing concern regarding the management of these sensitive data in the society, who have access to it and where it is stored. Blockchain technology can, potentially offer a secure solution to address this problem, in a decentralized manner without any centralized authority. This is of importance for e-health services where the patient and the healthcare provider often are required to prove their identity.

Blockchain technology can be utilized for creating digital identities and make the management of those identities easier, giving a higher degree of control to the user than what current solutions offer. It can be used for creating a digital identity on the blockchain, making it easier to manage for individuals and entities, giving them greater control over who has their personal in-formation and how they handle it, and it could be utilized to create a higher degree of trust and security to e-health applications.

Objective: The aim of this research work is to review the state-of-the- art regarding blockchain-based decentralized identity management for healthcare applications. Based on this summary, we provide a viewpoint on how blockchain-based decentralized identity frameworks could be utilized for virtualized healthcare applications.

Method: This research has applied a scoping, semi-systematic review approach to summarize the state-of-the-art. Included identity management systems were evaluated based on seven criteria:Autonomy, Authority, Availability, Approval, Confidentiality, Tenacity and Interoperability

Results: Seven blockchain-based identity management systems were included and evaluated in this work:These include solutions built with Ethereum, Hyperledger Indy, Hyperledger Fabric, Hedera and Sovrin blockchains.

Conclusion? Read more here: https://doi.org/10.30953/bhty.v5.195