Unirecord - a blockchain-based healthcare record system

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Inspiration

The inspiration for this product is the many people on social media who are dissatisfied with their healthcare system. One of the common headaches faced by people is when their hospital or medical professionals lost their records, and that they have to go across legal troubles because of this. Additionally, any existing attempt at unifying health records via something like cloud storage is also a problem, since for example, a single data breach could result in many hospitals losing or leaking their data due to data being stored in a gigantic monolith that way. However, having heard of news surrounding the hype of applications of cryptography like blockchain, it seemed like a perfect idea to combine a technology whose advantages are its unpenetrable security and decentralization with a real-life problem that demands it.

What it does

This website uses cryptography and blockchain-based data storage techniques in order to store the records of patients. Patients have a private key in which they can log in and upload or hide any of their records. Doctors have a private key and public key, where their private key is used to log in and only view the uploads of their patients, and their public key is used by their patients to allow doctors access to their information.

How we built it

We used a combination of a Python Flask backend and a normal HTML/CSS/Javascript stack.

Challenges we ran into

We struggled to implement a proof-of-work system into our blockchain, which is really the advantage of what it it's all about, so hence we had to settle for a mixed in-memory database model with blockchain elements. Another struggle is when we lost the majority of our work since our lead developer had their laptop crashed, so we were kind of in a time pressure.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We managed to build something that is quite innovative in 36 hours! Our members also learned new technology such as getting familiar with web technologies and learning to design the frontend. We also learned a great deal about the fundamentals of cryptography and the basics of creating a blockchain.

What's next for Unirecord - a blockchain-based healthcare record system

I feel like this project actually holds lots of potential. Sadly, a field like cryptography requires thousands of hours of study and probably even post-collegiate study to create a fully-functional blockchain system secure and trustworthy enough for hospitals to put their medical records in. However, what I think would be super cool would be to have an open-source project based on a concept like this prototype where people around the whole world can contribute to and create a nearly complete untraceable blockchain-based record system based on something like Monero or CryptoNote.