Design of blockchain-based authentication and key agreement protocol for health data sharing in cooperative hospital network

Health data collected from IoT devices can be utilised for predicting various medical information. The information collected is stored in centralised server and can be shared among various branches of the cooperative hospital network for analysis purposes. However, these communications are wireless which leads to various security threats like unauthorized access by intruders and misuse of health data. The existing work provides an authentication scheme that depends on trusted third party and centralised storage. This increases the computational burden and latency at the centralised server and may lead to a single-point failure. To solve this issue, a Blockchain-based authentication and key agreement scheme is proposed for sharing health data. The proposed scheme incorporates the concept of Blockchain that makes the system distributed, immutable, and transparent. An Elliptic Curve Cryptography based authentication scheme is proposed where all the information is stored in the Blockchain. In addition, a secret key is established to provide secure communication among patients, Hospital servers, and IoT devices. Hyperledger Fabric platform is used for Blockchain implementation that supports channel communication. There is a formal analysis using the ROR model that proves the security of the session key. The formal simulation using the Scyther tool shows that there is no attack within bound. Moreover, the informal analysis proves that the proposed work is resistant to various attacks and satisfies the security goals. The comparative study demonstrates that the proposed work is more effective as compared to others. The proposed work involves implementing a system of cooperative hospital servers that communicate through a shared channel. Hospital servers belonging to the same channel will be able to communicate securely and privately. This setup also facilitates the efficient transfer of health data among various hospital servers, eliminating the need for redundant computations during registration and authentication processes on each server. Additionally, the use of Blockchain reduces dependency on third party, makes the system distributed, provides immutable storage and increases confidentiality among members by using channel communication.