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The year 2020 should have been the start of an exciting decade in medicine and science, with the development and maturation of several digital technologies that can be applied to tackle major clinical problems and diseases. These digital technologies include the internet of things (IoT) with next-generation telecommunication networks (eg, 5G) 1, 2; big-data analytics 3; artificial intelligence (AI) that uses deep learning 4, 5; and blockchain technology 6. They are highly inter-related: the proliferation of the IoT (eg, devices and instruments) in hospitals and clinics facilitates the establishment of a highly interconnected digital ecosystem, enabling real-time data collection at scale, which could then be used by AI and deep learning systems to understand healthcare trends, model risk associations and predict outcomes. This is enhanced by blockchain technology, a back-linked database with cryptographic protocols and a …