A Framework of the Critical Factors for Healthcare Providers to Share Data Securely Using Blockchain

The healthcare sector is suffering from inefficiencies in handling its data. Many patients and healthcare organisations are frustrated by the numerous hurdles to obtaining current, real-time patient information. Patients are also frustrated at trying to schedule appointments at health organisations that have outdated contact information. The healthcare sector’s attention has been drawn to blockchain technology as a part of the solution, especially since this technology has been successfully applied in the financial sector to improve the security of transactions. The aspect of interoperability is resolved adequately by blockchain technology, because it has the potential to store, manage and share EMRs safely in the healthcare community. Therefore, the technology is having a positive impact on healthcare outcomes for various stakeholders. Interoperability in healthcare eases the exchange of health-related data, such as EMRs, between healthcare entities so that records may be shared and distributed among clinical systems. To handle data in this sector without violating privacy is a challenge, whether in the collection, storage, or analysis. Poor security, which increases data breaches, endangers patients both mentally, socially, and financially. A lack of data-sharing in the healthcare sector is considered a significant issue worldwide. This research focuses on this gap by investigating the benefits of using blockchain at the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia, providing a detailed analysis of the healthcare sector, and evaluating how blockchain technology improves data-sharing security. This research proposes a framework that identifies the factors supporting data-sharing using blockchain among healthcare organisations. It has three categories: healthcare systems factors; security factors; and blockchain factors. A triangulation technique achieved reliable results in three steps: a literature review; an expert review; and a questionnaire. This gave a comprehensive picture of the research topic, validating and confirming the results. To construct the framework, factors were comprehensively extracted from the literature then analysed, cleared of duplicates, and categorised. As a result, the final framework is confirmed as being based on the literature and expert review, and it is supported by the practitioners’ survey.