NFT-based Solutions for Healthcare

Abstract

The healthcare industry has undergone significant changes in its supply chain over the years, leading to the formation of complex networks and interactions both domestically and globally. Consequently, the management of medical devices information and data in the healthcare supply chain has become increasingly challenging, with issues related to data integrity, provenance, traceability, and transparency. Moreover, the reintroduction of refurbished medical devices into the market is accompanied by similar challenges, including concerns about quality and safety, as well as the risk of fraudulent activities such as counterfeiting. To tackle these challenges, we propose a non-fungible token (NFT) based solution that exploits blockchain smart contracts, integrates tokenization protocols, and utilizes a decentralized storage system for a reliable and efficient traceability system and ownership management solution for new and refurbished medical devices. The proposed solution utilizes dynamic composable NFTs as digital representations of medical devices, with replacement parts and certificate documents embedded in a parent-child NFT hierarchy, and reprocessing steps captured and reflected through the evolution of the dynamic tokens. This serves to authenticate and track the movement of refurbished devices while also providing a trustworthy means of managing individual devices and their ownership. Furthermore, the integration of non-transferable (soulbound) NFTs as certificates of medical device reprocessing acts as an effective mechanism for detecting suspect medical devices and instances of fraudulent labeling, thereby increasing buyer confidence and promoting user safety. Finally, we extend our solution to utilize NFTs to bridge digital twins of medical products across blockchain networks and teleport them into metaverse platforms for immersive digital interactive experience. For all the main components, we define our proposed system architecture, design and implement algorithms as Ethereum smart contracts, deploy our smart contract code to test and validate their functionalities, and analyze our approach in terms of cost, security and generalization.

Date of Award	Apr 2023
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Khaled Salah (Supervisor)