I-Corps: Blockchain-powered hybrid platform for seamless and interoperable medical image sharing

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a medical image sharing platform empowered by blockchain. Healthcare institutions, including hospitals, clinics, and medical imaging centers, often encounter difficulties in sharing medical images across different systems and facilities. Further, most healthcare systems face concerns related to data security and patient privacy. Consequently, many organizations resort to antiquated CD-based methods for medical image sharing, incurring high costs, inefficiencies, and security vulnerabilities. The proposed platform enables standardized and secure sharing of medical images, eliminating the need for physical media for medical image sharing. The goal for the proposed technology is to facilitate faster, secure, and interoperable medical image sharing. By streamlining medical image sharing, healthcare professionals may collaborate more effectively, leading to improved patient care and outcomes. In addition, rapid and secure access to medical images across different healthcare settings may expedite diagnoses, enable timely treatment decisions, and reduce medical errors. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a blockchain-powered medical image storage and sharing platform. The platform's architecture includes components such as smart contracts, encryption mechanisms, and decentralized storage systems, which collectively enable seamless and trustworthy medical image sharing. The use of smart contracts provides a reliable framework for access control and data sharing permissions. The encryption mechanisms safeguard sensitive patient information during transmission and storage, bolstering data security and privacy. Additionally, the utilization of decentralized storage systems ensures redundant and distributed data storage, mitigating the risk of data loss, manipulation, or security threats. The research underlying this project involves leveraging blockchain's inherent properties of decentralization, immutability, and transparency to establish a secure and interoperable infrastructure for medical image exchange. By harnessing the potential of distributed ledger technology, the proposed platform addresses the existing challenges of fragmented systems, limited interoperability, and data silos in medical image sharing. Blockchain technology addresses critical challenges in medical image sharing, paving the way for enhanced collaboration, improved patient care, and increased efficiency in healthcare. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.