CertificateChain: decentralized healthcare training certificate management system using blockchain and smart contracts. Issue 1 (14th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tellew, Jeffrey; Kuo, Tsung-Ting
• Is Part Of: JAMIA open. Volume 5:Issue 1(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-03-14
• Subjects: healthcare training certificates, data sharing -- interoperability and health information exchange -- privacy and security -- blockchain distributed ledger technology; Medical informatics -- Periodicals; 610.285
• DOI: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooac019
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2574-2531

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Managing training certificates is an important issue in research that can lead to serious issues if not addressed properly. For institutions that currently do not have a dedicated management system for these training certificates, a central database is the most typical solution. However, such a system suffers from several risks, such as a single-point-of-failure. Materials and Methods: To address this issue, we developed and evaluated CertificateChain, a decentralized training certificate management system by using peer-to-peer blockchain and automated smart contracts. We developed an efficient certificate dividing-and-merging algorithm to overcome the transaction size limit on blockchain. Results: We performed experiments on the system to evaluate its performance, then created a web app and tested the system in a real-world scenario. CertificateChain scaled linearly in terms of time compared with the total number of certificates added and could be quickly queried for existing data stored on-chain. Discussion: CertificateChain was able to store and retrieve the training certificates on the blockchain network, with limitations including a comparative analysis of other systems, evaluation of different consensus protocols, examining certificates off-chain, a thorough comparison with a centralized system, and the extension to the main public Ethereum network. Conclusion: We believe that these results indicate that blockchain technology could be a viable decentralized alternative to traditional databases in this use case. Our software is publicly available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6257094 . Lay Summary: In many research scenarios, certifications are required for data access requests. Institutions must manage the relevant certificates to avoid potentially serious scenarios that could impede research. Most existing systems suffer from risks such as single-point-of-failure, a scenario in which an entire system can be rendered ineffective with the failure of only one node in the network. To solve this problem, we developed CertificateChain, a decentralized certificate management system that adopted blockchain and smart contract (programs running on blockchain) technology and stores the certificates on-chain. To evaluate the system's performance, we performed experiments on it by storing Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) certificate files to test its scalability and speed, as well as real-world testing using an accompanying web app. We found that in terms of time, the system scaled linearly, and could quickly be searched for any existing certificates. The limitations include the evaluation of other blockchain consensus protocols, verification of certificate authenticity before and after uploading, the scalability of upload file size, as well as an in-depth comparison to existing centralized systems. After developing and evaluating the system, we believe that CertificateChain shows potential to be a viable decentralized alternative for existing centralized systems.