A Blockchain-based NFT Framework for Ownership and Intellectual Property Preserving with Controlled Access to Medical Datasets

Abstract

Abstract The rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics techniques across biomedical research, diagnostics and personalized medicine has established high-quality medical datasets as foundational resources. However, a significant impediment to progress is the reluctance of data owners to share these valuable resources because existing infrastructures provide no reliable guarantee of ownership or intellectual property preservation, in addition to the control over unauthorized usage. Consequently, vast quantities of recorded, high-potential data remain unused within private repositories. To overcome this barrier, a blockchain-based framework leveraging Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is introduced in this paper to preserve ownership of medical datasets. The general workflow involves minting an NFT representing the dataset (stored encrypted off-chain), allowing users to request time-limited access via a smart contract. Access is granted using ephemeral decryption keys, enforcing fine-grained and revocable control. For forensic auditing, watermarking and perceptual hashing are integrated to enable the detection of post-access leakage without identifying the perpetrator directly. Technically, the framework integrates on-chain Merkle Tree-based integrity verification to ensure data fidelity upon retrieval. Practical applicability is demonstrated using a longitudinal multimodal neuroimaging dataset from OpenNeuro (DS007328). The proposed framework establishes a technically feasible and reproducible model for next-generation medical data governance, enabling verifiable ownership, controlled access, and reproducible auditing while keeping sensitive data off-chain.