Though medical data itself is not considered intellectual property, the expression of medical data in a fixed form is indeed categorized as such. Because of this, healthcare information is siloed. Despite its incredible value, individuals find it difficult to monetize their data.
With the popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the recognition of their unique digital potential, it leads people to wonder; will it be possible for patients to gain ownership of their digital medical data?
Michael J. Kaldasch (CEO) and Ben O. El Idrissi (COO) are the brains behind Aimedis and they may have an answer to this question. Aimedis is a blockchain-based healthcare platform and it was one of the first companies to launch a marketplace for medical data and NFT science.
They also launched the very first NFTs for cardiology patients, which contained ECG data and allowed them to be treated in the metaverse. They both believe that NFTs can provide healthcare stakeholders with solutions.
NFTs’ Potential to Change Medical Data Usage
Kaldasch explains that medical data contains intellectual property, which means there are royalties involved. Since NFTs are unique and can’t be corrupted, they can be linked to digital contracts to cover the royalties related to medical data.
This means that NFTs provide potential answers to the issue of using and sharing digital healthcare information. Of course, the solutions presented by NFTs can contain conditions. For instance, entities can only use NFTs to a certain extent.
Perhaps the biggest benefit here is that it provides patients with the opportunity of tracking their healthcare information and receive feedback while staying anonymous. Essentially, it places the control of their medical data entirely in their hands.
Aimedis is a marketplace where NFTs are built upon depersonalized and anonymous data. This is why founders are confident this technology could allow care providers, patients, AI and data companies the chance to monetize healthcare data and disband the silos.
Usability is another important consideration in this conversation. Blockchain provides an answer to the question of how processes can be simplified in the healthcare industry. The issue here is the storage of medical data.
Gathering medical data is a long process involving many healthcare stakeholders from different institutions, who get the data from a variety of departments within hospitals.
Based on that, they create a data package but pieces of data can’t be accessed easily because they are all bound by the contracts of each healthcare stakeholder involved in the process.
NFTs have made medical data more accessible and transferable because they already include both the information and the stakeholders’ agreement. This reduces costs, makes everything less time-consuming, and increases efficiency. That’s why NFTs are so attractive.
How NTFs Benefit Healthcare Stakeholders
It’s important to note that Aimedis is a B2B platform that serves doctors, researchers, study nurses, hospitals, and CROs. It also supports data providers such as car manufacturers. In this context, healthcare stakeholders refer to anyone who collects medical data because they can supply, buy, or sell it. Whether they’re a car manufacturer or a hospital.
The main challenge of allowing patients to collect their healthcare data is that they’re not specialized. It would be difficult for them to decipher the meaning of the data precisely. Not to mention people may create NFTs to sell fake healthcare data.
This is why they emphasize responsibility with such passion. For example, healthcare institutions shouldn’t directly allow patients to monetize their data. Instead, they should do it through the organization that’s responsible for them. Otherwise, there’s a high risk.
Large organizations already own huge amounts of medical data, so it’s reasonable for the entities to be in charge of transactions and exchanges. Aimedis founders are also focused on providing a payment method based on data exchange, so hospitals can exchange treatments for patient data. This way, medical data can act as a currency in healthcare.
