IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2018 - 66

since 2014. With this comprehensive database, analytics tools
can be run to uncover useful information to further understand the etiological factors for rare disorders. This database
is successful primarily because Taiwan is a small but densely
populated island, making it relatively easy for the government to collect most, if not all, the anamneses.

HEALTH-CARE DATA AND SECURITY
There are risks to relying on centralized management. If the
system is maliciously attacked, all the other nodes will melt
down and become unable to store data. However, if we use the
distributed architecture technology of a blockchain, even if
some of the nodes are maliciously attacked, other nodes will
not be affected in their operation. Several experts and
researchers have raised doubts about this centralized database
as the only way to store this important information because
most people are still concerned about the security and privacy
of the database. Several studies [1], [2] claim that the policy to
create a database to keep the anamneses should only be put in
place after a long deliberation on how to avoid the data from
being abused by a particular researcher or organization.
Recently, a promising technology, the blockchain, has been
discussed in several studies [3], [4], [5]-[9] because it
achieves the goals of decentralization and smart contracts.

Thus, the blockchain can be applied to the environment of the
Internet of Things for more applications, such as smart medicine, in which patients can access their own medical records
via blockchain technology with a secure way to protect their
privacy. That is why the main focus of this research is on
blockchains for data transmission of the health-care system.
Blockchain technology can be considered as a distributed
ledger model that allows for any form of trading via peer-topeer systems, with the details of each transaction stored in a
node. That is the main reason blockchains do not require a
centralized database to record each transaction. The blockchains allow for the addition of new transaction data but not
the modification on existing transaction contents. Through
encryption techniques, such as hashing and elliptic curve
cryptography, blockchains can ensure their network security.
Currently, the blockchain technology has added smart contracts into its system to establish legal effects for transactions,
drastically reducing costs of contract signing, contract execution, and payment issues.
Autonomous agents, on the other hand, will likely eliminate
agency and coordination costs by requiring minimal to no management in its highly distributed business model. Figure 1 gives
a simple example of how a blockchain works. When user A and
user B perform a transaction, each user has his or her own

US$10

US$15

User A

User B

User C

Hash

Private Key Sign of ua

Private Key Sign of ub

Private Key Sign of uc

Transaction Details of ua

Transaction Details of ub

Transaction Details of uc

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Node B

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Node C

Node D

Node A
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Node G

FIgURE 1. An example of a blockchain.

66 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

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july 2018

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2018