Blockchain-Enabled Secure Data Provenance Framework for Internet of Medical Things

Abstract

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) generates massive volumes of sensitive health data, requiring robust mechanisms to ensure its integrity, confidentiality, and traceability. Data provenance—the record of data origin and the sequence of transformations and accesses—is crucial in healthcare for regulatory compliance, auditability, and maintaining diagnostic confidence. Traditional centralized provenance systems are vulnerable to single points of failure, malicious tampering, and lack the transparency required for multi-institutional data sharing. This paper proposes a novel Blockchain-Enabled Secure Data Provenance Framework (BC-SDPF) designed specifically for IoMT environments. The BC-SDPF utilizes a permissioned consortium blockchain to immutably record every event related to data lifecycle, including creation by IoMT sensors, processing by edge/fog nodes, access by authorized researchers, and updates by clinicians. Smart contracts automate the enforcement of access policies based on patient consent and regulatory rules (e.g., HIPAA). By storing hash pointers of the large medical data files on the blockchain and the files themselves in a decentralized off-chain storage (like IPFS), the framework ensures both scalability and tamper-proof security. Performance evaluation demonstrates that the BC-SDPF provides strong integrity guarantees with minimal transaction latency suitable for healthcare applications, significantly enhancing trust and transparency across the IoMT ecosystem.