METHODS article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1638546
This article is part of the Research TopicEthical and Legal Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Public Health: Balancing Innovation and PrivacyView all 12 articles
A Blockchain Framework Using Proof of Authority and Smart Contracts for Ethical and Secure Healthcare Asset Management
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
- 2The National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences - Foundation for Advancement of Science and Technology, Karachi, Punjab, Pakistan
- 3Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
- 4Paperbox Health S.R.L, Turin, Italy
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The proposed model in this paper focuses on asset tracking and monitoring in the healthcare industry and it uses blockchain technology. Data security incidents in the healthcare field have created financial and ethical problems over the last few years. During 2024, the money lost from healthcare data breaches often exceeded $4.88 million due to the exposure of private patients and asset information. This shows why it is important to use secure systems to protect worthwhile information and manage key assets efficiently and correctly. Since such intrusions cannot be prevented by the current systems, businesses end up losing money and working less efficiently. These issues are addressed by using a system that includes blockchain, IoT and digital asset tracking technologies. To ensure data integrity and prevent fake information, Proof of Authority (PoA) uses chosen, recognized authorities to verify and confirm each transaction. To protect transactions, PoA requires a number of approvals from different parties which helps ensure that transactions are safe and secure. With immutable and decentralized features, blockchain makes the management of assets more secure and transparent. Records of asset transfers and data are safely stored on the blockchain with smart contracts, providing real-time monitoring and no room for errors. When integrated with IoT devices, the system can constantly check all the assets, improving the company's efficiency while reducing losses of items. The findings suggest that a PoA blockchain system can help healthcare asset management systems operate more ethically, safely, transparently, and efficiently.
Keywords: Blockchain, healthcare, tracking, Management, Monitoring, asset
Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shaikh, Hassan, Maccaro, Pratesi and Piaggio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Muhammad Farooq Shaikh, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
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