In interfacility transport care, a critical challenge exists in accurately matching ambulance response levels to patients' needs, often hindered by limited access to essential patient data at the time of transport requests. Existing systems cannot integrate patient data from sending hospitals' electronic health records (EHR) into the transfer request process, primarily due to privacy concerns, interoperability challenges, and the sensitive nature of EHR data. We introduce a distributed digital health platform, Interfacility Transport Care (ITC)-InfoChain, designed to solve this problem without compromising EHR security or data privacy. This report details the implementation of Interfacility Transport Care (ITC)-InfoChain, a secure, blockchain-based platform designed to enhance real-time data sharing without compromising data privacy or EHR security. The ITC-InfoChain platform prototype was implemented on AWS cloud infrastructure, employing Hyperledger Fabric as a permissioned blockchain. Key elements included participant registration, identity management, and patient data collection isolated from the sending hospital's EHR system. The client program submits encrypted patient data to a distributed ledger, accessible to the receiving facility's critical care unit at the time of transport request and EMS teams during transport through the PatienTrack web application. Performance was evaluated through KPIs such as data transaction times and scalability across transaction loads. The ITC-InfoChain demonstrated strong performance and scalability. Data transaction times averaged 3.1 seconds for smaller volumes (1-20 transactions) and 6.4 seconds for 100 transactions. Optimized configurations improved processing times to 1.8-1.9 seconds for 400 transactions. These results confirm the platform's capacity to handle high transaction volumes, supporting timely, real-time data access for decision-making during transport requests and patient transfers. The ITC-InfoChain platform addresses the challenge of matching appropriate transport units to patient needs by ensuring data privacy, integrity, and real-time data sharing, enhancing coordination of patient care. The platform's success suggests potential for regional pilots and broader adoption in secure healthcare systems. Stakeholder resistance due to blockchain unfamiliarity and data privacy concerns remains. Funding has been sought to support a pilot program to address these challenges through targeted education and engagement.
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