Academic Medicine Open Forum

"The AAMC peer community is the go-to source for trends in NFTs."
-No one ever

NFTs, nonfungible tokens, are digital assets that represent real-world objects (art, music, videos, etc). They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency. They are, according to Scientific American, "Essentially a one-of-a-kind digital trading card that can also serve as proof of ownership for a physical or digital object. Every time this digital asset changes hands, the exchanges are recorded on a type of public ledger called the blockchain."

But there are potential real-world applications:

• Sara Harrison, in the Scientific American article linked above, suggests that NFTs could be attached to medical data. They have the potential to provide patients control over their own medical information-including giving permission to those who request access-and to track biological samples (even blood donations) taken from their own bodies.

• Some speculate that there are opportunities for patients to monetize the use of their personal health data, in the way that some companies are already doing. DNA testing companies are already profiting from the sale of customers' genetic data to third party research companies.

• There are possible uses of NFTs and blockchain technology in the fight against counterfeit pharmaceuticals. According to this investment blogger, "NFTs have the ability to secure and streamline the tracking process – enabling the immediate identification of issues. That means that problems can be resolved much more rapidly, including the identification of black-market prescriptions and eliminating them from the system."

• A software called RightsHash is using NFTs to represent and manage an individual's rights, to track and manage patient consent to participate in clinical trials.

• There are implications in telemedicine and prescription delivery services too. NFTs might be used to verify services between virtual and physical transactions, as a digital token for a prescription order for example. 

Have you thought about these or other potential implications for NFTs in medicine and research? Are any of our academic medicine institutions innovating in this space?

"The AAMC peer community is the go-to source for trends in NFTs."
-No one ever

NFTs, nonfungible tokens, are digital assets that represent real-world objects (art, music, videos, etc). They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency. They are, according to Scientific American, "Essentially a one-of-a-kind digital trading card that can also serve as proof of ownership for a physical or digital object. Every time this digital asset changes hands, the exchanges are recorded on a type of public ledger called the blockchain."

But there are potential real-world applications:

• Sara Harrison, in the Scientific American article linked above, suggests that NFTs could be attached to medical data. They have the potential to provide patients control over their own medical information-including giving permission to those who request access-and to track biological samples (even blood donations) taken from their own bodies.

• Some speculate that there are opportunities for patients to monetize the use of their personal health data, in the way that some companies are already doing. DNA testing companies are already profiting from the sale of customers' genetic data to third party research companies.

• There are possible uses of NFTs and blockchain technology in the fight against counterfeit pharmaceuticals. According to this investment blogger, "NFTs have the ability to secure and streamline the tracking process – enabling the immediate identification of issues. That means that problems can be resolved much more rapidly, including the identification of black-market prescriptions and eliminating them from the system."

• A software called RightsHash is using NFTs to represent and manage an individual's rights, to track and manage patient consent to participate in clinical trials.

• There are implications in telemedicine and prescription delivery services too. NFTs might be used to verify services between virtual and physical transactions, as a digital token for a prescription order for example. 

Have you thought about these or other potential implications for NFTs in medicine and research? Are any of our academic medicine institutions innovating in this space?