Some Medical Ethicists Endorse NFTs—Here's Why

Since the artist Beeple sold a piece of digital art for nearly $70 million, a craze has swept through the world of cryptocurrencies, ensnaring the general public. The piece was a non-fungible token (NFT), a one-of-a-kind digital trading card that can also serve as proof of ownership for a physical or digital object. The exchanges are recorded on a type of public ledger called the blockchain when this digital asset is changed hands. The success of Beeple may not last. There are real uses for the block chain. Attaching NFTs to medical data is a possible application. Ethicists say the technology holds immense potential to change the way patients are cared for.

Electronic health records contain medical information. There are other people who want to use that data. Medical researchers and companies are buying large data sets to find novel markers of disease, train diagnostic algorithms and create risk calculators that evaluate surgical candidates. The ethical dilemma created by this work is thatSensitive personal health information is being accessed and exchanged outside of patient awareness on a regular basis and using legal means. Kostick-Quenet says that the system now benefits a few companies that control access to health records, rather than centering the interests of the patients whose data are being used.