BACKGROUND
As Patient-reported outcome measures face challenges with low response rate on sur- veys, different incentive mechanism have been proposed to achieve a higher response rate. However, it seems that monetary incentives are the only mechanism with proven effect. Nevertheless, it is less likely to be used than other mechanisms due to the monetary cost.
OBJECTIVE
Explore a cryptographic scheme for incentives PROMs responses.
METHODS
In this research work, a cryptographic scheme for rewarding patients with cryptographic tokens is developed and implemented on the Ethereum test network.
RESULTS
The model is able to distribute decentralised tokens to patients who complete the PROMs in a fair, private, decentralised approach. The token can be further used by patients to exchange more healthcare services, encouraging more patients to participate in PROMs. At the same time, an IER detection method is built to improve the quality of PROMs, avoiding the healthcare provider paying for meaningless PROMs from patients who barely participate for incentives.
CONCLUSIONS
This work shows that smart contracts on a decentralised platform is a feasible method to give incentives to patients for completing PROMs surveys. Future research should test this with real patients to measure the effect of such incentive system.