I would advise you to search around a bit more thoroughly for universities who are doing such work. I don't know much about CS PhD programs, but in biomed, sol

I would advise you to search around a bit more thoroughly for universities who are doing such work. I don't know much about CS PhD programs, but in biomed, solo publications are very rare, just due to the amount of resources needed. Also, you lose the credibility of an institution, and your work will be more heavily scrutinized, or just thrown out for being too much work to review. As to whether it would be the "equivalent" or a PhD, it won't get through a resume parser, and won't get you a teaching position or even a postdoctorate position, but companies probably won't care.