Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain
Blockchain technologies have been benefiting many industries by being decentralized, secure and confidential. They offer great potential in pandemic impacted scenarios as well. Contact tracing helps to mitigate the transmission of disease by alerting people who may have been exposed so they can act...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Informatics in Medicine Unlocked |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352914821002185 |
| _version_ | 1818892133505957888 |
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| author | Nida Bari Usman Qamar Ayesha Khalid |
| author_facet | Nida Bari Usman Qamar Ayesha Khalid |
| author_sort | Nida Bari |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Blockchain technologies have been benefiting many industries by being decentralized, secure and confidential. They offer great potential in pandemic impacted scenarios as well. Contact tracing helps to mitigate the transmission of disease by alerting people who may have been exposed so they can act on time to protect themselves. Contact tracing systems face some challenges related to issues of medical privacy, data security and transparency. Multiple researches show concern that contact tracing discourages people to seek medication because of the fear of loss of data, subsequent stigma, discrimination, or abuse. In this paper, we discuss how contact tracing can be improved using blockchain technology and could be able to solve these issues. The aim of our proposed system would be to reduce the impact of pandemic, to implement this merger of the blockchains and the Contact tracing app and to ensure user privacy and avoid data misuse by incorporating a symmetric key cryptographic mechanism. To tackle the scalability related issues of Blockchain this framework uses IPFS, a distributed file storage system also known as Interplanetary File System. This blockchain based solution system will enhance contact tracing by making it more stable, secure, performant, highly useable and above all effective in the fight against any pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T17:51:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0f32c3d4541949739224a52d794dadf0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2352-9148 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T17:51:52Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Informatics in Medicine Unlocked |
| spelling | doaj.art-0f32c3d4541949739224a52d794dadf02022-12-21T20:11:54ZengElsevierInformatics in Medicine Unlocked2352-91482021-01-0126100742Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchainNida Bari0Usman Qamar1Ayesha Khalid2Knowledge & Data Science Research Centre, Computer & Software Engineering Department, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, PakistanKnowledge & Data Science Research Centre, Computer & Software Engineering Department, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan; Corresponding author. Computer Engineering Department, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (E&ME), National Universities of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan.The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), ECIT Institute, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UKBlockchain technologies have been benefiting many industries by being decentralized, secure and confidential. They offer great potential in pandemic impacted scenarios as well. Contact tracing helps to mitigate the transmission of disease by alerting people who may have been exposed so they can act on time to protect themselves. Contact tracing systems face some challenges related to issues of medical privacy, data security and transparency. Multiple researches show concern that contact tracing discourages people to seek medication because of the fear of loss of data, subsequent stigma, discrimination, or abuse. In this paper, we discuss how contact tracing can be improved using blockchain technology and could be able to solve these issues. The aim of our proposed system would be to reduce the impact of pandemic, to implement this merger of the blockchains and the Contact tracing app and to ensure user privacy and avoid data misuse by incorporating a symmetric key cryptographic mechanism. To tackle the scalability related issues of Blockchain this framework uses IPFS, a distributed file storage system also known as Interplanetary File System. This blockchain based solution system will enhance contact tracing by making it more stable, secure, performant, highly useable and above all effective in the fight against any pandemic.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352914821002185Contact tracingCOVID-19Interplanetary file systemBlockchainDistributed systemAnd pandemic |
| spellingShingle | Nida Bari Usman Qamar Ayesha Khalid Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain Informatics in Medicine Unlocked Contact tracing COVID-19 Interplanetary file system Blockchain Distributed system And pandemic |
| title | Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain |
| title_full | Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain |
| title_fullStr | Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain |
| title_short | Efficient Contact Tracing for pandemics using blockchain |
| title_sort | efficient contact tracing for pandemics using blockchain |
| topic | Contact tracing COVID-19 Interplanetary file system Blockchain Distributed system And pandemic |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352914821002185 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nidabari efficientcontacttracingforpandemicsusingblockchain AT usmanqamar efficientcontacttracingforpandemicsusingblockchain AT ayeshakhalid efficientcontacttracingforpandemicsusingblockchain |