Hash properties-oriented decentralized blockchain distribution of histopathology images on IPFS

Abstract

Transaction and storage of image data across multiple ends to make a harmonized pathology-based healthcare system has been one of the most researched areas in the biomedical field. This domain has been dealing with its own concerns of data security and performance issues like time sensitivity of diagnostic tasks in medical institutions. In the recent past, centralized approaches such as PACS(Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) have been employed for commercial use to share images among patients, pathologists and hospitals or medical centers. They have introduced a whole infrastructure for the sharing techniques of pathology data. However, this infrastructure has a single point of failure that can disconnect the user from the system with no contingency. Furthermore, there are security concerns when we solve the single point of failure issue by using the decentralization method of sharing images through Ethereum blockchain and IPFS( Interplanetary File System). There are insufficient security parameters in the existing setup of decentralization. It relies mainly on a single encryption of the data which makes it susceptible to exploitation. This research focuses towards enhancing the security protocols within Ethereum to improve the security measures essential for sharing medical images while maintaining the time sensitivity of data transaction. We introduce hash properties-oriented technique to add parameters in the decentralized network by using IPFS hash created by image and properties generated by the hash using smart contract algorithms in the Ethereum blockchain. Keywords: Pathology , Picture Archiving and Communication Systems, Ethereum blockchain, Interplanetary File System, Hash properties, Smart contract