Unique Digital Images as Incentives in Clinical Trials: A Digital Shift Toward Meaningful Participation
Xavier Tadeo, Gyula Seres, Peter Wang, Yoann Sapanel, Alexandria Remus, Jasmine L Eyal, Jason Kai-Wei Lee, Simon Chesterman, Julian Savulescu, John Eu-Li Wong, Christopher L Asplund, R Brian Stone, Benjamin C K Tee, Reza Shokri, Marlena Raczkowska, Li Ming Chong, Siong Peng Kwek, Agata Blasiak, Dean · 2026
Read Unique Digital Images as Incentives in Clinical Trials: A Digital Shift Toward Meaningful Participation by Xavier Tadeo, Gyula Seres, Peter Wang, Yoann Sapanel, Alexandria Remus, Jasmine L Eyal, Jason Kai-Wei Lee, Simon Chesterman, Julian Savulescu, John Eu-Li Wong, Christopher L Asplund, R Brian Stone, Benjamin C K Tee, Reza Shokri, Marlena Raczkowska, Li Ming Chong, Siong Peng Kwek, Agata Blasiak, Dean (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13245546.txt.
Description
Tadeo and colleagues propose a new kind of reward for clinical trial volunteers in this 2026 Journal of Medical Internet Research article. Trials often fail to recruit or keep enough participants, and cash payments alone do not always sustain engagement. The authors suggest giving each volunteer a unique digital image, created for them and recorded as a nonfungible token.
In their example, volunteers train with a personalized digital therapy program, and their individual learning path is turned into digital artwork given at the trial's end. The authors argue that ownership, personalization, and visible recognition could motivate people more deeply than money alone. They call for real studies testing whether such meaningful incentives improve retention.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Xavier Tadeo, Gyula Seres, Peter Wang, Yoann Sapanel, Alexandria Remus, Jasmine L Eyal, Jason Kai-Wei Lee, Simon Chesterman, Julian Savulescu, John Eu-Li Wong, Christopher L Asplund, R Brian Stone, Benjamin C K Tee, Reza Shokri, Marlena Raczkowska, Li Ming Chong, Siong Peng Kwek, Agata Blasiak, Dean |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 36 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |