A Mechanism for Verifying the Integrity and Immutability of Tuberculosis Data Using IOTA Distributed Ledger Technology.

BACKGROUND Intensified research and innovation and rapid uptake of new tools, interventions, and strategies are crucial to fight Tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease. The sharing of health data remains a significant challenge. Data consumers must be able to verify the consistency and integrity of data. Solutions based on distributed ledger technologies may be adequate, where each member in a network holds a unique credential and stores an identical copy of the ledger and contributes to the collective process of validating and certifying digital transactions. OBJECTIVES This work proposes a mechanism and presents a use case in Digital Health to allow the verification of integrity and immutability of TB electronic health records. METHODS IOTA was selected as a supporting tool due to its data immutability, traceability and tamper-proof characteristics. RESULTS A mechanism to verify the integrity of data through hash functions and the IOTA network is proposed. Then, a set of TB related information systems was integrated with the network. CONCLUSION IOTA technology offers performance and flexibility to enable a reliable environment for electronic health records.