Research notes on biomedical blockchain
Editorial research notes covering how blockchain and verifiable data structures intersect with healthcare data, clinical research, identity, consent, and regulated software.
How the research section is organised
Each note works through one question that the field tends to fudge. The notes are written to be useful before they are search-friendly, which means they sometimes argue against the easy framing rather than restate it. Where a claim depends on a specific source, that source is named in the body rather than implied through generic phrases.
The notes are grouped loosely by theme. Landscape and standards material comes first. Then the privacy, consent, and identity track. Then domain-specific notes on records, trials, and genomic data. The final pair covers patient-controlled records and a framework for evaluating projects in the space.
All research notes
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The biomedical blockchain landscape
A practical map of where ledgers and verifiable data structures genuinely help in healthcare and research, and where they do not.
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Health data privacy and consent on shared infrastructure
How patient privacy, granular consent, and audit logging interact when records cross institutional boundaries.
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Standards and implementation concerns in healthcare blockchain
Why ledger choice rarely solves interoperability, and which standards still carry the operational weight.
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Digital health software in regulated contexts
Where blockchain-flavoured tools sit in the broader regulated software picture, and what claims require caution.
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Decentralised identity in healthcare
Identifiers, credentials, identity proofing, and the gap between protocol elegance and clinical reality.
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Electronic health records and blockchain
Why raw records rarely belong on chain, and what kinds of EHR-adjacent problems are actually a fit.
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Genomic data marketplaces
Consent design, identifiability risk, and the limits of token-based incentives in genomic research.
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Clinical trial data integrity
Timestamping, protocol versioning, and the difference between proof of process and proof of correctness.
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Patient-controlled health records
How patient access and consent dashboards should be evaluated outside the marketing language.
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Evaluating blockchain healthcare startups
A framework for categorising projects, judging credibility, and spotting the recurring warning signs.
How to read these notes
They are not policy advice. They are not clinical guidance. They are not investment commentary. They are an editorial map of the parts of biomedical blockchain that hold up when examined closely, and the parts that tend to dissolve under pressure. Where the field is genuinely unsettled, the notes say so rather than picking a side for tidiness.
For background terms used across the notes, the glossary is the quickest reference. The methodology page covers how directory categorisation and confidence labels are applied.