www.astesj.com 40 A Blockchain-Based Architecture for Smart Healthcare System: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia Saleh Albahli 1* , Rehan Ullah Khan 1 , Ali Mustafa Qamar 2 1 Department of Information Technology, College of Computer, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Computer Science, College of Computer, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: 09 October, 2019 Accepted: 04 January, 2020 Online: 15 January, 2020 eHealth is the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance health quality access. Health care innovations are an essential element of Vision 2030 and National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020 operational plan that will lead to an improvement in the quality of health care in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this paper is to address the healthcare system limitations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in general and the Qassim region in particular to global standards. In practice, the creation of an infrastructure for storing and seamless sharing of health data between different entities is studied. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of current practices w.r.t. the health data, as well as finding similarities between NTP 2020 and Health 2020 (European Union) has been performed. A multi-level blockchain eHealth system is proposed to provide seamless electronic health records to the patients. Moreover, the current practices being employed in Qassim province, KSA has been analyzed. It was found that private hospitals give access to medical reports to their patients besides allowing them to manage their appointments. On the other hand, access to the government hospitals’ medical records is minimal . Keywords: Healthcare Blockchain Smart healthcare Smart cities Healthcare cloud 1. Introduction The thrust of technology has provided a lot of facilities for everyday life. The technology transformation in the medical domain evolves within the political, administrative and socio- economic factors of a particular country. Also, the technology introduced by using various platforms including e-Health, Telemedicine, and m-Health provides the facility to disseminate health-related information distributed among clinics, health care providers and patients. e-Health is a subset of telemedicine and m- Health [1-3]. The importance of these state-of-the-art innovative approaches towards improved health care systems and quality of life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is highlighted through a number of project calls initiated by the health ministry. Also, the KSA government stresses that the country’s healthcare institutions must work as an allocative and collaborative body for the well- being of citizens. In the Middle East, the KSA healthcare sector is the largest. According to the 2018 budget, the KSA spent 36% of its budget on the health sector which holds the largest share. Population growth, emerging diseases, and fluctuating international scenarios are pushing the up-gradation of the KSA health system. The government is also taking steps towards marketization and privatization as a core policy of health system reforms. With the up-gradation of traditional health to e-Health, the privacy and security of patients' data is also a significant concern [4]. The current Saudi Arabian government has initiated a Vision 2030 [5]. The Vision 2030 is a bold but achievable blueprint for an ambitious nation. For the capacity building and for achieving Vision 2030 objectives, the KSA government has launched the National Transformation Plan (NTP). The NTP vision is to create an infrastructure and clear a path for achieving the objectives of the Vision 2030. NTP consists of 8 themes, and among the various themes, one of the most important ones is the “health care services.” NTP not only focuses on quality health services, but also prioritizes the digital records growth to 70% by 2020. The government is thus focusing on implementing the electronic database of the patient’s medical history timely and effectively. NTP also prioritizes the timely quality of health access to all the citizens and creates ASTESJ ISSN: 2415-6698 * Saleh Albahli, Email: salbahli@qu.edu.sa Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal Vol. 5, No. 1, 40-47 (2020) www.astesj.com https://dx.doi.org/10.25046/aj050106