Towards Building Multi-factor Authentication Scheme for Users in the Healthcare Sector Based on Blockchain Technology

The Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) has led to significant growth in the field of digital health research. Protecting patient privacy is difficult since patient data is sensitive. Presently, patient data is commonly maintained in cloud-based healthcare systems, restricting users’ authority over their personal information. The healthcare issues cannot function without secure user authentication to verify user identity over possibly unsafe routes. As a result, numerous methods of remote authenticating have evolved, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Privacy, security, and threat concerns are major roadblocks in the healthcare system. This study introduces a secure user authentication system utilizing blockchain technology for healthcare users. Our proposed scheme utilizes blockchain technology, ECC, and symmetric encryption with a crypto-hash function to provide anomalies in user identity and generate One-Time Passwords (OTPs). The solution addresses existing vulnerabilities and validates its security using the Scyther tool, a formal security tool. Our work in the healthcare field focuses on building a system that can establish, record, store, search, and verify information. In addition, we obtained a lower execution time for the proposed scheme, approximately 0.3021 ms compared to other authentication mechanisms. Moreover, the throughputs of our work were very good and increased linearly as the number of users increased. Finally, our suggested work complies with the security standards.