I’m freaking out about the potential of #nfts or (non-fungible tokens) to transform #healthcare and #patientdata. As in a “shout it from the rooftops,” complete evangelist kind of way. Why am I so 😃😃😃? NFTs could:
👉Finally unify patient records. Anyone who has ever had more than one doctor probably knows that health records are genuinely a discombobulated mess. At the last in-person conference I attended pre-Covid, I learned there were more than 120 “convenient” #patientportals in Ontario. 120 DIFFERENT SYSTEMS 😬 for a patient to access their information. WTH?
In an almost comedy-of-errors scenario I once lost 3 hours of my life 🚗 across Toronto to a west-end hospital 🏥 to pick up a CD of my MRI results and deliver it to my east-end doctor 🧑🏿⚕️ (who could not guarantee the files would be compatible). Nfts would be a way of creating that “complete patient file” most patients can only dream of having (and doctors would surely benefit from).
👉Help patients reclaim data that’s rightfully theirs. Though crypto and NFTs are perceived as a kind of over-hyped “goldrush” the real gold nuggets are in the acquisition of data. Why should a drug company or a hospital own MY health information? More importantly, why should any company get 💰💰💰of it? It’s not rocket science: patients should own their data and be able to decide who they can share or even sell it to. Will there be other considerations and complications? Undoubtedly, but none that supercede the fundamental right of patients to own their medical history.
👉Make patient data unhackable. Yes, so this may be the point where healthcare’s ears perk up. Patient documentation is coveted (sometimes at the expense of patient and staff experience), and yet as most people in health know, breaches aren’t a matter of “if” but “when” regardless of the rock-solid superstar efforts of the IT team. Because NFTs are inherently decentralized, privacy breeches are much less likely—music to any healthcare organization’s ears (and patients like it too).
If you think NFTs and #blockchain are concepts too “abstract” for you to understand, these doctors do a great job of simplifying the discussion and making concepts easily digestible.
What do you think—am I overblowing this or are you as 😃😃😃about NFTs in health as I am?
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