IIoT in the Hospital Scenario: Hospital 4.0, Blockchain and Robust Data Management

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) consists of the pervasive application of the IoT paradigm in conjunction with analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) in industrial scenarios. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) extends further the IIoT model with the inclusion of robotics and automation, whereas Hospital 4.0 (H4.0) is the application of the I4.0 paradigm to the healthcare sector. H4.0 relies on cyber-physical systems managing several devices and software components. and the exchange of a huge amount of sensible data that includes medical records. Medical records can be much more valuable to criminals than financial data, indeed the control of medical data allows criminals to plan and realize different frauds, that the victims may identify only too late. Furthermore, the complexity of a typical H4.0 cyber-physical system makes healthcare records particularly vulnerable. Blockchain is today an emerging technology for the management of data that may avoid or mitigate the impact of threats related to data storage and management, in general, and to the administration, in particular, of healthcare records. The blockchain technology relies on cryptography and distributed consensus to guarantee data integrity, accountability and security. The exploitation of such technology is considered in this chapter, showing the advantages when used in a H4.0 scenario.