MedRec : patient centered medical records using a distributed permission management system

Abstract

MedRec is a simple, distributed system for personal control of identity and distribution of personal information. The work is done in the context of a medical information distribution system where patients retain control over who can access their data. We create a network of trusted data repositories, the access to which are determined by a set of 'smart contracts'. These contracts are stored on a distributed ledger maintained by those who generate data. The distributed nature of the system allows unified access from diverse sources in a single application with no intermediary. This increases patient control while retaining a measure of privacy of both data content and source. MedRec is amenable to extensions for decentralized messaging and distribution of information to third parties such as medical researchers, healthcare proxies, and other institutions. The system is based on a blockchain that contains smart contracts defining user identity and distribution specifics.