Blockchain for Biomedical Research and Healthcare : Concept, Trends, and Future Implications

Blockchain is a new type of technology that combines and secures information exchange between different stakeholders such as medical practitioners, patients, healthcare providers, and other applicable parties. Among them, Blockchain Technology is one of the most important areas in the bioinformatics application of biomedical research and healthcare systems utilizing unique requirements and integration features. All the chapters are written by experts and researchers working in various areas of the biomedical and healthcare domain and they also dive into one of the most overlooked methodological, practical, and moral questions to secure and handle the enormous amount of data being generated from IoT-enabled biomedical and healthcare systems. In the beginning, this book presents an overview and then discusses open issues, challenges, and applicability aspect of Blockchain technology in healthcare. Then, this book presents a variety of perspectives on the most pressing questions in the field, for example: how IoT can connect billions of biomedical and healthcare information; how the blockchain-based secure access control mechanisms in biomedical and healthcare work; how to address the Quality-of-Service (QoS) and real-time accessibility requirements for healthcare applications; and how to ensure communication with efficiency. Also, it discusses Blockchain for IoT-enabled healthcare systems and presents a comparative analysis with respect to various performance evaluation metrics too.

Dr. Aparna Kumari, is associated with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. She is having more than 12+ years of experience and focuses on cutting-edge research and teaching. Her broad research area includes Smart Grid Systems, Blockchain Technology, Electric Vehicles, and Renewable Energy Sources. Recently, she has won Shri P. Prahlaad Chabaria Award-2023 for Best women Profession- as a Runner up from Hope foundation, IEEE India council, IEEE affinity group, IEEE Pune section and WIE. She has been listed in the world's Top 2% Scientists as per the list published by Stanford University’s USA in the years 2021, 2022, and 2023.  Two of her novel works on COVID-19 have been approved by the WHO and included in their “COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease” database. She authored/co-authored 40 publications (28 in peer-reviewed SCI-indexed International journals, 10 papers presented in top-tier IEEE International conferences and 2 book chapters in Springer and IET).  She is an active member of IEEE and Women in Engineering (WIE) India. She strives to contribute to society through her outreach to societal projects. She aims to facilitate access to resources for underprivileged students.

Prasun Kumar, Ph.D.

Prasun Kumar holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India. He is presently working as a Research Scientist at MNR Medical College and Hospital, Hyderabad. Earlier, he was working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, and Republic of Korea. He has over seven years of experience in applied microbiological research including about 2 years of experience in industrial R&D. His main areas of research are bioinformatics, medical microbiology, microbial biodiversity, bioenergy, microbial biofilms, quorum sensing, quorum quenching, and genomics. His present research is oriented toward valorizing lignocellulosic biowastes into value-added products such as biopolymer, 2G ethanol, bioenergy, and antibiofilm compounds. To his credit, there are over 35 articles in SCI journals, 7 books, and 18 chapters with international publishers. He has been serving the scientific society by reviewing articles for several SCI journals and delivering guest lectures. Publons awarded him the peer review award in the year 2018. He also serves as the editorial board member of a few international journals.