NFTs could put health records back in the hands of patients

Future. A group of researchers from Baylor University argue that NFTing medical records, thus turning them into a digital contract, could put the power back in the hands of people as opposed to health providers. While the benefits are plenty, the idea may still have to hurdle the twin barriers of user knowledge and crypto-skepticism.

File system
What if your health records lived on the blockchain?

• A group of bioethicists, lawyers, and informatics scholars from Baylor College of Medicine published in Science that an NFT-like digital contract of ownership would empower patients.
• That’s because it could help people keep track of health records and control who has access to them.
• Additionally, it would give patients the ability to stop the sale of — or cash in on — their health information.

While the law states that individuals can download their health records whenever they please, typically from their health provider’s app, what happens to those records on the provider’s end is anyone’s guess.

Of course, NFTs come with their own host of issues, but their use may be better than the current system.