Computer Science and Information Technology Vol. 9(3), pp. 33 - 49
DOI: 10.13189/csit.2021.090301
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IMPILO Platform - An Innovative Blockchain-Based Global Open Healthcare Social Network

Thelma Androutsou ¹, Michael Kontoulis ¹, Konstantinos Bromis ^1,*, Panagiotis Kapsalis ¹, Ioannis Kouris ¹, Haralampos Karanikas ^2,3, Alexandros Christodoulakis ³, Panagiotis Dimitrakopoulos ³, Dimitris Askounis ¹, Dimitrios Koutsouris ^3
1 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, 15773, Greece
² Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics, University of Thessaly, Lamia, 35100, Greece
³ Datamed SA, Athens, 15124, Greece

ABSTRACT

The current research project focuses on the development of an innovative social health network and electronic health record system (IMPILO platform) which is based on Blockchain technology. The purpose of this project is to provide a series of health services (e.g. booking of medical appointments and tele-counselling meetings) to both citizens and doctors that would offer a more direct communication and cooperation between them and thus help reduce critical delays in medical care provision. As IMPILO manages health data, in addition to the group of friends found in some forms on all social networks, two additional certain types of user relationships have been defined: Circle of Trust (which includes a limited number of people with full rights to review and modify each user's profile and health record) and Care Team (which consists of the users-doctors that have access to their profile and medical data and can perform certain actions on their behalf). This feature is useful for keeping profiles of elderly and minors. The utilization of the capabilities of the blockchain technology in areas beyond cryptocurrencies is of particular value, especially in the field of health, where the IMPILO platform creates more reliable and durable networks, using the blockchain technology, while helping to the seamless communication between the various stakeholders (doctors, patients, hospitals, etc.). The decentralized data storage and full control of a patient's consent management process helps overcome issues such as the secure management of sensitive personal data and authorization to access medical data. Thus, blockchain is one of the most important components of the IMPILO platform that acts as a basis for recording all meaningful events in the application and provides security to users for the integrity of their data. The application is accessible via a smartphone application (for both Android and iOS operating systems) and a web interface, with a special emphasis on the design of functional, efficient and easy-to-use user interfaces, taking into account the requirements of the end users of the application and the specifics of the health sector.

KEYWORDS
Blockchain Technology, Social Network, Mobile Application, Web Application, Medical Records, Social Health Network, mHealth

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Thelma Androutsou , Michael Kontoulis , Konstantinos Bromis , Panagiotis Kapsalis , Ioannis Kouris , Haralampos Karanikas , Alexandros Christodoulakis , Panagiotis Dimitrakopoulos , Dimitris Askounis , Dimitrios Koutsouris , "IMPILO Platform - An Innovative Blockchain-Based Global Open Healthcare Social Network," Computer Science and Information Technology, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 33 - 49, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/csit.2021.090301.

(b). APA Format:
Thelma Androutsou , Michael Kontoulis , Konstantinos Bromis , Panagiotis Kapsalis , Ioannis Kouris , Haralampos Karanikas , Alexandros Christodoulakis , Panagiotis Dimitrakopoulos , Dimitris Askounis , Dimitrios Koutsouris (2021). IMPILO Platform - An Innovative Blockchain-Based Global Open Healthcare Social Network. Computer Science and Information Technology, 9(3), 33 - 49. DOI: 10.13189/csit.2021.090301.