NFT Digital Twin for Biospecimen Provenance and Patient Custody
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current healthcare systems face inefficiencies and injustices in generating, storing, exchanging, and managing health information, particularly in disconnecting patients from the secondary use of their biospecimens and health data, without mechanisms for fairly distributing benefits to patient-donors.
Innovation Solution
A healthcare ecosystem utilizing a distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to securely store, distribute, and track health-related information, allowing patients to maintain custody of their specimens and related data while ensuring patient privacy and provenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional database technologies are used to store healthcare records, then data can be stored and accessed by stakeholders, but data remains siloed and patients are disconnected from their biospecimens and health data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces blockchain technology as an intermediary layer between conventional databases and stakeholders. The blockchain serves as a trusted mediator that records provenance information immutably while allowing conventional databases to continue storing healthcare records. This resolves the contradiction by preventing information loss through blockchain's immutable ledger without requiring complete system redesign.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data management system into two distinct layers: a blockchain layer for storing provenance and custody information, and conventional database layers for storing detailed healthcare records. This segmentation allows each layer to optimize for its specific function, maintaining data integrity while avoiding the complexity of a completely new system.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If patient personally identifiable information is disconnected from biospecimens for privacy protection, then patient privacy is maintained, but researchers cannot contact patients or align patient interests with research benefits
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses blockchain as an intermediary that maintains patient-specimen associations without exposing personally identifiable information. The blockchain stores hashed or encrypted patient identifiers that link specimens to patients privately, while still enabling researchers to trace specimen provenance and contact patients through controlled mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different levels of information disclosure to different stakeholders. Patient privacy is protected by encrypting or hashing PII in the blockchain, while provenance information remains accessible to researchers. This local quality approach allows selective information sharing that simultaneously protects privacy and maintains necessary associations.
3Productivity
If biospecimens are used for research without patient connection, then research can proceed efficiently, but patients cannot benefit from or be compensated for the secondary use of their specimens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where blockchain records track the secondary use of biospecimens and automatically enable benefit distribution to patients. Researchers can efficiently use specimens without direct patient contact, while the blockchain continuously records usage and triggers automated compensation or benefit sharing based on pre-established rules.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables the system to automatically handle benefit distribution without requiring continuous patient involvement. The blockchain autonomously tracks specimen usage, calculates appropriate compensation, and facilitates distribution to patients, allowing research to proceed efficiently while ensuring patients receive their entitled benefits.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments described herein provide for a healthcare ecosystem of computing devices participating as nodes of a distributed ledger (e.g., blockchain). The distributed ledger includes NFTs representing corresponding patients, where the initial NET behaves logically as a token scaffold that represents a “digital twin” of the particular patient. The initial patient token represents personal profile data of patient personal data for the patient. The nodes may generate new data and/or new sub-tokens (or other blockchain entry type) representing new data, which the nodes associate with the token scaffold. The sub-tokens contain data for representing physical or digital specimens, health data, and data derived from the health data (e.g., cell lines, organoids, other model systems). As the nodes generate and associate new sub-tokens to the patient's token scaffold over time, the token scaffold graphs and facilitates integration of patient-specific data and evolves into a robust electronic health record (EHR) and digital twin.