NFTs first made a splash in the art world as a platform for buying and selling digital art backed by a digital contract. But could NFT digital contracts be useful in other markets such as healthcare?
Digital NFT Contracts Could Provide Opportunity in Patient Health
A global multidisciplinary team of scholars in ethics, law and informatics led by bioethicists from Baylor College of Medicine. He wrote one of the first comments on how this emerging new technology could be repurposed for the healthcare industry.
In a new publication in the journal Science, the researchers propose that the tool could help patients gain more control over their personal health information. NFT digital contracts could provide an opportunity for patients to specify who can access their personal health information and track how it is shared.
“Our personal health information is completely out of our control in terms of what happens to it once it’s digitized into an electronic health record and how it’s traded and exchanged from there.”
Said Dr. Kristin Kostick-Quenet, first author of the study. role and assistant professor at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor. “NFTs could be used to democratize health data and help people regain control and be more involved in decisions about who can see and use their health information.”
In the era of big data, health information is its own currency
“In the era of big data, health information is its own currency; it has become commoditized and profitable,” said Dr. Amy McGuire. Lead author of the paper and the Leon Jaworski Professor of Biomedical Ethics and director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor. “The use of NFTs for health data is the perfect storm between a huge market that is evolving and the popularity of cryptocurrencies. But there are also many ethical, legal and social implications to consider.
The researchers note that NFTs remain vulnerable to data security flaws. Privacy issues and disputes over intellectual property rights. Furthermore, the complexity of NFTs can prevent the average citizen from realizing their potential. The researchers believe it is important to consider the potential benefits and challenges as NFTs emerge as a potential pathway to transform the world of health data.
Timo Minssen, MD, I. Glenn Cohen, Urs Gasser, MD, and Isaac Kohane, MD, also contributed to this publication.
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