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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution Vol. 22, No. 1 (2025), pp. 149-165.
doi: 10.36922/AJWEP025040017

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Securing smart health in smart cities: Blockchain
technology to secure electronic health data sharing

Varsha Mhaske* and P. M. Ashok Kumar*

Department of Computer Science Engineering, College of Engineering, KL University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Renewable Energy Systems and Strategies
in Smart Grids and Smart Cities Development)
*Corresponding authors: Varsha Mhaske (mailvm13@gmail.com); P. M. Ashok Kumar (profpmashok@gmail.com)

Received: January 20, 2025; Revised: February 14, 2025; Accepted: February 25, 2025; Published online: March 24, 2025

Abstract: In the era of smart cities, safeguarding electronic health records (EHRs) is crucial to ensure the privacy
and security of citizens’ sensitive medical information. Existing medical data transfer methods are vulnerable
to privacy breaches, making it challenging to protect patient data. This research proposes a novel blockchain-
based approach to secure EHR sharing in smart cities. Our method leverages improved association rule mining to
identify sensitive information, which is then encrypted using the Siberian Tiger Integrated Tuna Swarm algorithm
to generate an optimal encryption key. The encrypted data are stored on a blockchain, ensuring its integrity and
confidentiality. Our proposed model demonstrates maximum robustness against various attacks, including chosen
ciphertext attack, chosen-plaintext attack, known ciphertext attack, and known-plaintext attack. This research
contributes to the development of secure and privacy-preserving smart health infrastructure in smart cities, enabling
the safe sharing of EHRs and promoting better health-care outcomes.

Keywords: Medical data; Improved association rule mining; Blockchain; Optimal key; Siberian tiger integrated
tuna swarm algorithm optimization

1. Introduction recommendations. The utilization of patient medical
4-6
information for research of novel treatment approaches
Health-care-related data are produced, saved, and used is another benefit of employing EHRs.
extensively in large quantities. Electronic health records Ensuring patient privacy is a fundamental concern
(EHRs) are one of the most significant components while utilizing EHRs in the health-care industry
7-9
of health-care systems, offering numerous benefits due to the widespread access to medical information.
to health-care stakeholders. For instance, it saves An additional challenge for EHR is that patients do
1-3
patients from costly testing, radiography, and recurrent not own their data; instead, the medicinal centers hold
imaging while enabling them to access their medical ownership of patient data. A key issue regarding patient
information. Furthermore, clinicians across different privacy is that medical professionals and investigators
health-care institutions can use EHR to access patient can access their EHR without the patient’s consent. 10,11
information, even if the patient receives care in separate From a security standpoint, several challenges arise
locations. In addition, EHRs allow doctors to review a with the use of EHRs. 12,13 These issues can potentially
patient’s past medication history, aiding in prescription be addressed through the use of blockchain technology

Volume 22 Issue 1 (2025) 149 doi: 10.36922/AJWEP025040017