Machine Learning-Driven Query Optimization for Secure and Efficient Blockchain Electronic Medical Record Management
Authors
Department of Computer Engineering, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Rivers State (Nigeria)
Department of Computer Science, Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny, Rivers State (Nigeria)
Article Information
DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS.2026.11090045
Subject Category: Computer Science
Volume/Issue: 11/9 | Page No: 572-585
Publication Timeline
Submitted: 2026-09-16
Accepted: 2026-09-21
Published: 2026-10-08
Abstract
The increasing volume of electronic medical records (EMRs) has created a growing need for healthcare information systems that can provide secure, reliable, and efficient access to patient data. Although blockchain offers strong security, immutability, transparency, and controlled data sharing, the increasing size and complexity of blockchain records can affect query performance and data retrieval. This study proposes a Machine Learning-Driven Query Optimization Framework for secure and efficient blockchain-based EMR management. The framework integrates machine learning, permissioned blockchain, smart contracts, and security mechanisms to optimize query execution while protecting sensitive medical information. Machine learning is employed to analyse query patterns and support the selection of efficient execution strategies, thereby reducing processing overhead and improving system responsiveness. The proposed framework was evaluated by experts using functional, security, privacy, reliability, scalability, usability, and query-efficiency criteria. The results showed positive expert assessments across all criteria, with Query Efficiency recording the highest mean score (4.28), followed by Functionality (4.23) and Security (4.16). These findings suggest that integrating machine learning with blockchain can improve the efficiency of EMR data retrieval without undermining essential security and access-control requirements. The framework provides a foundation for intelligent and scalable healthcare information management and can support secure information exchange among authorized healthcare stakeholders. Further empirical testing with real-world healthcare workloads is recommended to validate its performance and scalability.
Keywords
Blockchain, Electronic Medical Records, Machine Learning, Query Optimization, Healthcare Data Security, Smart Contracts.
Downloads
References
1. Agbo, C. C., Mahmoud, Q. H., & Eklund, J. M. (2019). Blockchain technology in healthcare: A systematic review. Healthcare, 7(2), Article 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7020056 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
2. Azaria, A., Ekblaw, A., Vieira, T., & Lippman, A. (2016). MedRec: Using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. In Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Open and Big Data (OBD) (pp. 25–30). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/OBD.2016.11 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
3. Casino, F., Dasaklis, T. K., & Patsakis, C. (2019). A systematic literature review of blockchain-based applications: Current status, classification and open issues. Telematics and Informatics, 36, 55–81. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.11.006 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
5. Chamola, V., Goyal, A., Sharma, P., Hassija, V., Binh, H. T. T., & Saxena, V. (2022). Artificial intelligence-assisted blockchain-based framework for smart and secure electronic medical record management. Neural Computing and Applications, 34(24), 22959–22969. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-022-07087-7 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
7. Deshpande, A., Ives, Z. G., & Raman, V. (2007). Adaptive query processing. Foundations and Trends® in Databases, 1(1), 1–140. https://doi.org/10.1561/1900000001 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
8. Dinh, T. T. A., Wang, J., Chen, G., Liu, R., Ooi, B. C., & Tan, K.-L. (2018). BLOCKBENCH: Benchmarking blockchain systems. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 1085–1100). Association for Computing Machinery. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3035918.3064033 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
10. Gan, C., Yang, H., Zhu, Q., Zhang, Y., & Saini, A. (2023). An encrypted medical blockchain data search method with access control mechanism. Information Processing & Management, 60(6), 103499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2023.103499 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
11. Graefe, G. (1993). Query evaluation techniques for large databases. ACM Computing Surveys, 25(2), 73–169. https://doi.org/10.1145/152610.152611 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
12. Hassija, V., Ratnakumar, R., Chamola, V., Agarwal, S., Mehra, A., Kanhere, S. S., & Binh, H. T. T. (2022). A machine learning and blockchain-based secure and cost-effective framework for minor medical consultations. Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, 35, 100651. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.suscom.2021.100651 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
14. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2023). What is an electronic health record (EHR)? https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-electronic-health-record-ehr [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
15. Jordan, M. I., & Mitchell, T. M. (2015). Machine learning: Trends, perspectives, and prospects. Science, 349(6245), 255–260. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa8415 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
16. Kruse, C. S., Kristof, C., Jones, B., Mitchell, E., & Martinez, A. (2018). Barriers to electronic health record adoption: A systematic literature review. Journal of Medical Systems, 42(12), Article 246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-018-1078-6 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
17. Kuo, T.-T., Kim, H.-E., & Ohno-Machado, L. (2017). Blockchain distributed ledger technologies for biomedical and healthcare applications. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(6), 1211–1220. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocx068 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
18. Marcus, R., & Papaemmanouil, O. (2019). Deep reinforcement learning for join order enumeration. In Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Exploiting Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Data Management (pp. 1–4). Association for Computing Machinery. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3329785.3329929 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
20. Marcus, R., Negi, P., Mao, H., Zhang, C., Alizadeh, M., Kraska, T., Papaemmanouil, O., & Tatbul, N. (2019). Neo: A learned query optimizer. Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 12(11), 1705–1718. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
21. https://doi.org/10.14778/3342263.3342644 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
22. McGhin, T., Choo, K.-K. R., Liu, C. Z., & He, D. (2019). Blockchain in healthcare applications: Research challenges and opportunities. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 135, 62–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2019.02.027 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
23. Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
24. Palaiokrassas, G., Bouraga, S., & Tassiulas, L. (2024). Machine learning on blockchain data: A systematic mapping study. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2403.17081 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
25. Przytarski, D., Stach, C., Gritti, C., & Mitschang, B. (2022). Query processing in blockchain systems: Current state and future challenges. Future Internet, 14(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14010001 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
26. Silberschatz, A., Korth, H. F., & Sudarshan, S. (2020). Database system concepts (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
27. Vaidya, K., Dutt, A., Narasayya, V., & Chaudhuri, S. (2022). Leveraging query logs and machine learning for parametric query optimization. Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 15(3), 401–413. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
28. https://doi.org/10.14778/3494124.3494126 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
29. World Health Organization. (2021). Global strategy on digital health 2020–2025. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240020924 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
30. Xu, X., Weber, I., & Staples, M. (2021). Architecture for blockchain applications. Springer. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
31. Zhou, Z., Marcus, R., Mao, Y., & Papaemmanouil, O. (2022). AI meets database systems: AI-driven query optimization and database tuning. Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 15(12), 3666–3669. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
32. Zhou, E., Hong, Z., Xiao, Y., Zhao, D., Pei, Q., Guo, S., & Akerkar, R. (2023). MSTDB: A hybrid storage-empowered scalable semantic blockchain database. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 35(8), 8228–8244. https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2022.3220522 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]
Metrics
Views & Downloads
Similar Articles
- What the Desert Fathers Teach Data Scientists: Ancient Ascetic Principles for Ethical Machine-Learning Practice
- Comparative Analysis of Some Machine Learning Algorithms for the Classification of Ransomware
- Comparative Performance Analysis of Some Priority Queue Variants in Dijkstra’s Algorithm
- Transfer Learning in Detecting E-Assessment Malpractice from a Proctored Video Recordings.
- Dual-Modal Detection of Parkinson’s Disease: A Clinical Framework and Deep Learning Approach Using NeuroParkNet