Blockchain, consent and prosent for medical research

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21513809
AutoresSebastian Porsdam Mann (0000-0002-1867-2097, Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen Faculty of Humanities, København, Denmark, autor correspondente), Julian Savulescu (0000-0003-1691-6403, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Oxford, UK), Philippe Ravaud (0000-0001-8264-9206, Columbia University), Mehdi Benchoufi (0000-0003-1948-719X, Clinical Epidemiology, Universite Paris Descartes Faculté de Médecine, Paris, Île-de-France, France)
Ano2021
Volume47
Fascículo4
Páginas244-250
Data de publicação2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Medical Ethics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0306-6800 • E-ISSN: 1473-4257
EditoraBMJ (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1136/medethics-2019-105963
PMID32366703
OpenAlexW3021604437
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas24

Recent advances in medical and information technologies, the availability of new types of medical data, the requirement of increasing numbers of study participants, as well as difficulties in recruitment and retention, all present serious problems for traditional models of specific and informed consent to medical research. However, these advances also enable novel ways to securely share and analyse data. This paper introduces one of these advances—blockchain technologies—and argues that they can be used to share medical data in a secure and auditable fashion. In addition, some aspects of consent and data collection, as well as data access management and analysis, can be automated using blockchain-based smart contracts. This paper demonstrates how blockchain technologies can be used to further all three of the bioethical principles underlying consent requirements: the autonomy of patients, by giving them much greater control over their data; beneficence, by greatly facilitating medical research efficiency and by reducing biases and opportunities for errors; and justice, by enabling patients with rare or under-researched conditions to pseudonymously aggregate their data for analysis. Finally, we coin and describe the novel concept of prosent, by which we mean the blockchain-enabled ability of all stakeholders in the research process to pseudonymously and proactively consent to data release or exchange under specific conditions, such as trial completion

Alternative medicine · Autonomy · Beneficence · Bioethics · Blockchain · Computer security · Data science · Data sharing · Informed consent · Internet privacy · Knowledge management · Political science · Respect for persons · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Blockchain Technology Applications and Security · Computer Science · Ethics in Clinical Research · Law · Medicine