CORUS: Blockchain-based trustworthy evaluation system for efficacy of healthcare remedies

Abstract

We present a healthcare remedy evaluation system, called CORUS, using blockchain-based crowdsourcing on a cloud computing platform. Efficacy of healthcare remedies such as functional foods and dietary supplements usually spreads by subjective word of mouth. Though regular clinical trials could be employed, it requires significant cost in time and budget. We expect crowdsourcing can be an effective and efficient alternative to the costly clinical trials to achieve objective evaluation on healthcare remedies. The blockchain technology can alleviate the problem of information quality in most of crowdsourcing systems. Properly designed reward distribution schemes can motivate voluntary participants to provide with credible information. The distributed replication of blockchains can increase the information credibility by prohibiting malicious forgery. We also utilize the Amazon cloud system to enhance availability and scalability. To our knowledge, CORUS is the first system to utilize crowdsourcing, blockchains, and cloud computing for healthcare remedy evaluation. It is available at https://corus.kaist.edu.