Implementing Blockchain Technology in the Indian Context to Enable the Secure Exchange of Patients’ Information with Government Agencies

The healthcare sector has endured significant challenges due to its incapacity to exchange sensitive patient information. Throughout the battle against the global crisis of COVID-19, it became evident that the healthcare field urgently needs to embrace cutting-edge technologies for storing patients' medical history securely and sharing medical data using privacy-enhancing methods. About 32 nations developed applications that proved effective in curbing the surge of COVID-19 cases, where the paramount focus remained on saving human lives. In a densely populated country like India, there is a pressing need for systems that can promptly alert authorities and healthcare professionals about any surge in cases linked to new strains of COVID-19 or similar pandemic indicators, enabling swift countermeasures. To tackle the task of securely transmitting data while there is a rise in COVID-19 positive cases or similar pandemic signs to government entities geographically segmented, we introduce OFFCHAINMEDVIEW empowered by blockchain, which permits only specific views about the positive patient records with the government agencies. This platform can harness data on positive cases and promptly relay updates to the government while ensuring privacy. Additionally, it can securely store medical records off-chain, accessible to healthcare stakeholders solely with patient consent. This approach enhances doctors' awareness of patient histories, facilitating tailored treatments with a privacy-centric approach, with 49% less gas consumption for transaction processing as compared to Proof-of-Work, since it is implemented on the permissioned network using Proof-of-Authority. The proposed OFFCHAINMEDVIEW stands to serve as an extension of Electronic Medical Records even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic era. The proposed OFFCHAINMEDVIEW will be able to act as an extension of the Electronic Medical Records even after the pandemic of COVID-19 is over.