Decentralized Health Data Management: An IPFS-based Approach and Performance Evaluation

Current health data management relies on centralized architectures that create a single point of failure, limit patient autonomy, and increase vulnerability to data breaches and vendor lock-in. This paper presents a decentralized approach to continuous health monitoring through the integration of wearable devices and distributed file systems. We implemented an Android application that collects physiological data and contextual information from a wearable device, storing it on the IPFS via Pinata API. Additionally, we propose a blockchain architecture for role-based access control. Performance evaluation comparing our IPFS-based implementation against Firebase Real-Time database reveals that the resource requirements remain negligible for modern smartphones while achieving significant benefits, including no single point of failure, enhanced data portability, and patient data sovereignty. The results demonstrate that decentralized health data management is technically feasible on mobile devices, offering an alternative approach to traditional centralized health data architectures.