Investigation of the blockchain structure for hydroxyapatite-based scaffolds

Regenerative biomechanics provides exciting technologies for developing functional substitutes, intending to restore and regenerate damaged tissues and organs. Scaffolds are in great demand. However, there are risks of biocompatibility when using scaffolds. Each bone substitute has its chemical composition, and other characteristics have advantages and disadvantages. Reproducibility, data sharing, privacy concerns, and patient participation in clinical trials are significant problems in modern clinical trials. In the era of the Internet, data is collected constantly. Today we need applications that ensure the privacy of users’ data. Blockchain technology helps to compensate for severe data management problems (e.g., patient recruitment, ongoing monitoring) in clinical trials (CT). The article examines the principles of blockchain operation and approaches to bone substitutes’ design. Based on this data, a blockchain model for biomaterial surgery has been created, facilitating interaction between the parties and reducing errors

Introduzione alle tecnologie blockchain e ai loro possibili usi in sanitá e nelle scienze biomediche.

L’idea di una moneta digitale decentralizzata risale fino gli anni ‘80, ma è stata realmente concretizzata solo nel 2008. Utilizzando e implementando tecniche e concetti già esistenti del mondo informatico e crittografico, è stato successivamente creato il Bitcoin; la prima vera e propria moneta digitale che sfruttava una nuova tecnologia: la blockchain. Nonostante siano state impiegate, nei primi anni di vita, per le sole criptovalute, nell’ultimo decennio le tecnologie blockchain hanno rapidamente acquisito importanza e popolarità al punto tale da essere proposte per l’implementazione in settori oltre quello per cui sono state inizialmente pensate. Il presente elaborato si pone come obiettivo quello di trattare a caratteri generali le tecnologie blockchain per poi esporre, tramite una rassegna bibliografica, suoi potenziali usi in ambito sanitario e biomedicale. Dopo una breve introduzione storica viene fornita una descrizione dei componenti principali e delle funzioni che ne garantiscono le proprietà di immutabilità, condivisione e decentralizzazione; caratteristiche che hanno motivato il successo di tali tecnologie che non si è ancora però concretizzato oltre l’ambito finanziario

Privacy in characterizing and recruiting patients for IoHT-aided digital clinical trials

Nowadays there is a tremendous amount of smart and connected devices that produce data. The so-called IoT is so pervasive that its devices (in particular the ones that we take with us during all the day - wearables, smartphones...) often provide some insights on our lives to third parties. People habitually exchange some of their private data in order to obtain services, discounts and advantages. Sharing personal data is commonly accepted in contexts like social networks but individuals suddenly become more than concerned if a third party is interested in accessing personal health data. The healthcare systems worldwide, however, begun to take advantage of the data produced by eHealth solutions. It is clear that while on one hand the technology proved to be a great ally in the modern medicine and can lead to notable benefits, on the other hand these processes pose serious threats to our privacy. The process of testing, validating and putting on the market a new drug or medical treatment is called clinical trial. These trials are deeply impacted by the technological advancements and greatly benefit from the use of eHealth solutions. The clinical research institutes are the entities in charge of leading the trials and need to access as much health data of the patients as possible. However, at any phase of a clinical trial, the personal information of the participants should be preserved and maintained private as long as possible. During this thesis, we will introduce an architecture that protects the privacy of personal data during the first phases of digital clinical trials (namely the characterization phase and the recruiting phase), allowing potential participants to freely join trials without disclosing their personal health information without a proper reward and/or prior agreement. We will illustrate what is the trusted environment that is the most used approach in eHealth and, later, we will dig into the untrusted environment where the concept of privacy is more challenging to protect while maintaining usability of data. Our architecture maintains the individuals in full control over the flow of their personal health data. Moreover, the architecture allows the clinical research institutes to characterize the population of potentiant users without direct access to their personal data. We validated our architecture with a proof of concept that includes all the involved entities from the low level hardware up to the end application. We designed and realized the hardware capable of sensing, processing and transmitting personal health data in a privacy preserving fashion that requires little to none maintenance

The role of blockchain and IoT in recruiting participants for digital clinical trials

Our personal data is now more valuable than ever. The uncontrolled growth of internet-centered services has led us to accept many compromises about how we share it. In the era of Internet of Things, personal data is collected continuously. Now, more than ever, we are in need of privacy-preserving applications where users always retain control of their personal data. In this paper, we present a secure way to control the flow of personal data in the specific case of the recruitment of participants for clinical trials. We take special care to protect the interests of both parties: the individual can keep its data private until an agreement is reached, and the Clinical Research Institute can be assured that it is acquiring useful and authentic data. We provide a proof-of-concept implementation and study its performance based on a real-world evaluation