Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31199293›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2019

Designing a Distributed Ledger Technology System for Interoperable and General Data Protection Regulation-Compliant Health Data Exchange: A Use Case in Blood Glucose Data.

David Hawig, Chao Zhou, Sebastian Fuhrhop, Andre S Fialho, Navin Ramachandran

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Blockchain for Modern Applications: A Survey.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Blockchain in Health Care: Hope or Hype?Journal of medical Internet research · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

David Hawig *Pact Care BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-9762-0163
Chao Zhou *Pact Care BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-2496-6892
Sebastian FuhrhopPact Care BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-0968-5846
Andre S FialhoPact Care BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-0586-8680
Navin RamachandranCentre for Health Informatics & Multiprofessional Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-7063-7064

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDistributed ledger technology (DLT) holds great potential to improve health information exchange. However, the immutable and transparent character of this technology may conflict with data privacy regulations and data processing best practices.

objectiveThe aim of this paper is to develop a proof-of-concept system for immutable, interoperable, and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-compliant exchange of blood glucose data.

methodsGiven that there is no ideal design for a DLT-based patient-provider data exchange solution, we proposed two different variations for our proof-of-concept system. One design was based purely on the public IOTA distributed ledger (a directed acyclic graph-based DLT) and the second used the same public IOTA ledger in combination with a private InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) cluster. Both designs were assessed according to (1) data reversal risk, (2) data linkability risks, (3) processing time, (4) file size compatibility, and (5) overall system complexity.

resultsThe public IOTA design slightly increased the risk of personal data linkability, had an overall low processing time (requiring mean 6.1, SD 1.9 seconds to upload one blood glucose data sample into the DLT), and was relatively simple to implement. The combination of the public IOTA with a private IPFS cluster minimized both reversal and linkability risks, allowed for the exchange of large files (3 months of blood glucose data were uploaded into the DLT in mean 38.1, SD 13.4 seconds), but involved a relatively higher setup complexity.

conclusionsFor the specific use case of blood glucose explored in this study, both designs presented a suitable performance in enabling the interoperable exchange of data between patients and providers. Additionally, both systems were designed considering the latest guidelines on personal data processing, thereby maximizing the alignment with recent GDPR requirements. For future works, these results suggest that the conflict between DLT and data privacy regulations can be addressed if careful considerations are made regarding the use case and the design of the data exchange system.

Indexed as

Proof of Concept StudyBlood GlucoseComputer Communication NetworksData AnalysisHealth Information ExchangeHumansBlood Glucoseblockchainblood glucosediabetesdirected acyclic graphdistributed ledger technologyFHIRIOTAIPFSMasked Authenticated Messaging, MAMmobile health

Identifiers

PMID31199293
PMCPMC6595943

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.