The phenotype broker: Blockchain and patient phenotype

In order to address these concerns, researchers are turning towards blockchains.  Technically seen, over time, there have been several developments to the original blockchain infrastructure so that it could be used for more than just cryptocurrencies and financial transactions. Researchers have begun looking into ways that blockchains can be used to improve current healthcare systems. Due to their immutable, transparent, distributed, and decentralized nature, blockchains can be used as a digital ledger to ease communication between patients, caretakers, and insurance companies. Patient data can also be stored in a single file, making it comprehensive and giving caretakers a better overview of the health history of the patient. Moreover, each single piece of medical information of an individual patient could be “individualized”, that is, patients could determine who is authorised to see the information and what for. They could even allocate price tags to such information.

A review of several published proposals for the inclusion of blockchains in healthcare has shown that the digital ledger technology can be used to improve current systems. Data could be distributed and decentralized, preventing it from being lost and allowing it to be recovered in the event of an attack. Audit trails keep track of what transactions and modifications are made to patient records, while notifying all users on the network. Patients will be given more control over who has access to their data by selecting who carries the cryptographic keys required to decrypt and view it.

However, again tonically seen, the sources reviewed in the present article have also mentioned some areas of concern that will need to be addressed, such as issues with scalability. Healthcare systems are expected to handle large amounts of data for a large number of people, and blockchains will need to be able to grow in order to accommodate for such a number to provide seamless service, and exchange of data. End-point security is also a concern, because although blockchains are secure, a single node being compromised may affect the entire chain. With the risk of a node being compromised, issues with key generation and replacement will also need to be addressed so that users can return to using the blockchain as soon as possible.

Overall, the integration of blockchains into healthcare infrastructures shows great potential. Continuing research in this area will be beneficial to healthcare providers, patients, and other involved parties such as research institutions and insurance companies. Once the remaining issues with blockchains are overcome, healthcare systems can evolve for everyone’s benefit. Here, we should mention that the referred to article is pretty technically driven, as far as blockchains are concerned as means of holding patient information. What is not addressed at all is the potential  of blockchains as an individualized means of knowledge and/or evidence brokerage. Imagine you are an individual with a certain genotype who carries particular allelic variants who places this genetic background and his individually resulting phenotype into a system like blockchains. In this system, the individual could, as mentioned above, define whether this information is “private” or “public”. Since pharmaceutical companies are very hot in getting phenotype data from patients, in order to make sense out of their clinical and pharmacovigilance data, they would pay any price for such information. So, in consequence, thanks to blockchain technologies, every individual / patient could become a broker for his own data, being genetic, being phenotypic, being a combination of the two. So, if ever, blockchains may offer a way to “broker” your personal health- and /or disease- and/or genetic predisposition- data at any price you decide upon to pharmaceutical companies, to regulatory bodies, or any one interested in your phenotype. For some rare gene/phenotype relations, in a very competitive environment, the price tags for such informations may become considerably high and tradeable on a future free health data market (FHDM) just as Bitcoins are in the financial markets.

It is very interesting to note that very much in line with this post here, a recent Medical Press article talked about the fact that more than half of Americans want not only money, but also control in exchange for genetic data that go to research and private companies. As people become more aware of privacy concerns and the ways in which genomic database companies are profiting from their data, their expectations for compensation and control may increase, according to researchers at Penn State and Cornell University who published their work in PLOS ONE. With some adaption, the considerations of these people would perfectly fit in with a blockchain concept as discussed here.