Background: One factor that has made clinical data integration so difficult to achieve is the lack of a universal ID for citizens leading to other related problems such as having to prove identity at each interaction with the
health system and providing basic information about demographics, insurance, payment, and medical conditions repeatedly. Traditional solutions requiring complex governance, expensive technology, and risks to privacy and security of data have failed to solve interoperability adequately.
This study describes technical design decisions of a patient-centric decentralized health identity management system using blockchain technology to address some of these challenges using the Hyperledger Indy and Aries blockchain frameworks.
Patients were able to register and share their information securely and in a trusted system with healthcare and other service providers with six credential types: Health ID with patient demographics, insurance, medication list including COVID-19 vaccination status, credit card, medical power of attorney (MPOA) for guardians of pediatric or geriatric patients,
and research consent - without repeatedly requiring physical identity documents or enrollment information
