Blockchain-Enabled Management Systems in Health IoT

Dear Colleagues,

In this Special Issue, we invite researchers and practitioners to submit original work advancing the state of Blockchain-Enabled Management Systems in Health IoT.

Health IoT devices—such as remote patient monitoring systems, wearable fitness trackers, smart inhalers, and robotic surgery tools—leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to collect and transmit sensitive health data, enabling personalized and efficient care. Despite these advancements, healthcare systems often rely on outdated infrastructure, with hospitals struggling to share data efficiently—even within the same region—due to reliance on fax, email, or physical records. Managing these data through its entire lifecycle is challenging as it involves ensuring integrity at collection, securing data transmission from IoT devices to health providers’ servers and cloud services, secure data storage with proper access controls, retrieving data for processing and analysis without revealing personal information, enforcing secure sharing with authorized parties such as other health providers or insurance companies, and enabling permanent destruction when no longer needed.

Blockchain technology has found applications across numerous domains, including healthcare, where it enhances security, transparency, and decentralization. Smart contracts can automate access control, allowing patients to manage permissions for healthcare providers while maintaining data security. To protect privacy and prevent excessive on-chain data storage, some approaches store only data identifiers on the blockchain, while keeping the actual data in off-chain storage.

However, challenges remain. IoT devices often lack robust security mechanisms, making them vulnerable to attacks (e.g., the 2016 Mirai botnet). Misuse of blockchain and smart contracts can also introduce privacy risks, and compromised IoT devices may propagate threats across networks. Additionally, continuous data collection strains storage infrastructure, and blockchain’s redundancy requirements exacerbate both cost and privacy concerns.

This Special Issue seeks novel contributions on integrating and optimizing blockchain for Health IoT, addressing security, scalability, usability, and integration challenges. We also encourage submissions focused on user-friendly designs, as many blockchain applications remain inaccessible to non-technical users. Practical solutions for seamless integration with legacy hospital systems are of particular interest.

Topics of interest include the following:

• Privacy-preserving IoT data sharing;
• Low-cost, long-term IoT data storage solutions;
• Smart contract-based access control for IoT data;
• Implementation and testing of blockchain-powered IoT management systems;
• Scalable blockchain architectures for IoT data management;
• AI-enhanced security, scalability, and privacy in blockchain-IoT systems;
• User-friendly interfaces for patients, providers, and insurers;
• Integration with existing hospital infrastructure;
• Continuous monitoring and authentication of IoT devices;
• Permanent data removal from immutable ledgers.

Dr. Yining Hu
Dr. Firas Al-Doghman
Dr. Dilum Bandara
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• blockchain
• health IoT
• secure health IoT data transmission and storage
• privacy-preserving health IoT data access and sharing
• privacy
• scalable blockchain architecture
• secure data sharing
• federated learning for IoT health data
• blockchain-AI integration in healthcare
• data traceability in health systems
• edge computing in healthcare
• gas-efficient smart contracts
• supply chain management in healthcare
• token-based incentive models for health data sharing