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Artificial Intelligence in Health Blockchain for health-care security

medical data. IPFS makes a distinctive content address for 7. Strength of blockchain technology in
storing and retrieving the data. 3,50 health-care sector
6.2.2. Blockchain achievements during COVID-19 The intrinsic properties of blockchain technology are
pandemic highly compatible with applications in the health-care
Blockchain ensures that all databases are synchronized, sector. The strength of blockchain technology contributes
secure, and verified. Nowadays, researchers and health- to various applications in the health-care sector, as shown
care professionals leverage blockchain technology to in Figure 5. There are clear parallels between blockchain
curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and create alerts technology and the essential requirements of the current
about future pandemics. There are several blockchain- health-care infrastructure. 41,52 Table 5 encapsulates some
based practices applied in realm of health care during the characteristics of blockchain technologies that can facilitate
COVID-19 pandemic, including tracking of infectious resolution of certain hurdles facing the current health IT
disease outbreaks. By virtue of its ability in safeguarding environment.
data security, blockchain can also efficiently keep track of
the public health data regarding infectious disease such 8. Blockchain technology and applications
as COVID-19. Blockchain also assists with the accurate in health-care sector
41
delivery of responses and helps with treatment decision- In 2016, the National Coordinator for Health Information
making soon after the early detection of symptoms so Technology Office requested proposals on blockchain
as to curb the spread of pandemic. Moreover, it guides applications in health-care sector, with a focus on data
health administration to keep track of the viral activity and validation, auditing, and authorization. Such a move is driven
suspected COVID-19 cases. 51 by the potential obstacles laid ahead of the incorporation
6.2.3. Donation tracking of blockchain technology in health-care domain, such as
privacy concerns, compliance with regulatory requirements,
Blockchain technology can be applied to track donations. and technical issues with data storage and distribution, even
It notifies the donors of any exigencies requiring an urgent though this technology enables storage of complete health-
inflow of funds and, most importantly, the receipt of their care records of an individual as a blockchain use case. 42,52
monetary contributions. Blockchain technology offers numerous opportunities
6.3. Management of medical supply chains in health-care sector for the secure sharing and storage
of patients’ data and medical records, and coupled with
With the help of blockchain technology, medical supply consensus methods, provides effective schemes in solving
chains in different industries can be properly managed, security issues in the health-care industry in recent real-
through a series of procedures involving records world applications. Leveraging medical chain is one
collection, demands tracking, and product supply during prominent example of using blockchain technology to
the pandemic. It also keeps track of the usage of tools and protect EHRs and give people control over their personal
instruments by doctors and patients in a bid to prevent health information. The emphasis on decentralization is
the inadvertent use of contaminated items. 42,51 Proper consistent with maintaining the confidentiality and integrity
guidelines governed by several AI sectors pertaining to data of patient records, even though the precise consensus
security have been introduced to fight against COVID-19 procedure is not usually mentioned. 44,52
and any other pandemics in future. These categories are
given in Table 4, which describes the AI technologies used Several security companies like Hashed Health in the
in medical supply chain management. USA are committed to using blockchain technology to

Table 4. Management of medical supply chain with the aid of AI technology
Issues Sector 1 Sector 2 Sector 3 Sector 4
Description Application of AI with AI tools Crowd source project Description Application of AI with AI tools
AI contribution Develop systems for drugs and Ensure data security (pandemic AI contribution Develop systems for drugs and vaccines
vaccines against COVID-19; situations) against COVID-19; enhance diagnosis
enhance diagnosis and improve and improve public health
public health
Implementation Quick diagnosis of COVID-19 Cognitive impact of COVID-19 IEEE declaration for Implementation examples
examples using medical images (Mexico, (USA); COVID-19 symptom ethical implementation
Singapore) study (UK) of AI system

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2024) 38 doi: 10.36922/aih.2580