The expansion of telehealth services is enabling healthcare professionals to consult, diagnose, advise or perform tasks remotely, enabling them to treat more patients in their own homes or consult on cases on the other side of the world. The security of sensitive user information is critical to effective and efficient delivery of healthcare services. Artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology are identified as key drivers of emerging telehealth systems, enabling efficient delivery of telehealth services to billions of patients globally. Specifically, AI facilitates the processing and analysis of complex telehealth data, and blockchain technology offers decentralised, transparent, traceable, reliable, trustful, and provable security to telehealth systems.

Emerging healthcare networks are interconnected physical systems that use cyber technologies for interaction and functionality. The proliferation of massive internet-of-things (IoT) devices enables remote and distributed access to cutting-edge diagnostics and treatment options in modern healthcare systems. New security vulnerabilities are emerging due to the increasing complexity of the healthcare architecture, in particular, threats to medical devices and critical infrastructure pose significant concerns owing to their potential risks to patient health and safety. In recent times, patients have been exposed to high risks from attacks capable of disrupting critical medical infrastructure, communications facilities, and services, interfering with medical devices, or compromising sensitive user data.