Ethereum, IPFS and neural compression to decentralize and protect patient data in computational pathology

The field of digital pathology produces a large number of images associated with patient metadata that are the raw material of computational pathology. The process of making images available with adequate privacy and data protection considerations takes a long time. Given that the Ethereum network associated with InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) promotes the exchange of information in a secure, private and decentralized manner, this association could be an important partner between digital and computational pathology. Therefore, here we propose and discuss a prototype with the aforementioned parts and the addition of neural compression, as an essential information preservation step. This prototype could constitute a link for the exchange of information in a secure way, providing transparency and reliability to the chain and empowering the field of manufacturing artificial vision solutions for the medical field