Blockchain technology seeks to connect patients with doctors on a decentralized platform to help reduce healthcare costs associated with office visits and middlemen. Several tech startups are racing to cross the finish line! One such, MedCredits, claims they’re the first blockchain powered platform that connects providers to patients worldwide on a decentralized network. Many in the industry anxiously await the announcement or launch date for token sale, and MedX token price. To receive the blue ribbon that label’s them as the first company to successfully integrate blockchain technology and smart contracts into current healthcare designs would give them a proverbial leg up on the competition.
MedCredits: Diagnostic Telemedicine Using Blockchain
Similar to other telemedicine startups, MedCredits desires to improve healthcare access and reduce rising healthcare costs. Developers believe trying to create a decentralized electronic medical record (EMR) is too difficult of a task to tackle all at one time, and rather approach implementation organically, growing the platform overtime by targeting medical specialties and slowly releasing software updates.
Instead of dismantling an entire electronic system and re-training workers, MedCredit team members are approaching blockchain-based telemedicine through integrating technology into readily accessible medical specialties, like Dermatology, to serve as a foundation for later application into other fields.
Dermatology is one of several specialties transforming the healthcare market by approaching it as a border-less, decentralized network. Diagnoses are largely based upon subjective descriptions and examination of skin, which Dermatologists agree can safely be accomplished with photographs and clear patient descriptions via smartphones.
How It Works
MedCredits, built from the OpenBazzar code-based system, is working to seamlessly integrate Hippocrates, a user-friendly app connecting Dermatologists with their patients, on the MedCredits platform. OpenBazzar is a decentralized peer-to-peer sharing platform for goods and information. Hippocrates is a user-friendly app on the MedCredits platform, where providers and patients meet to discuss their skin concerns.
- Global Network ~ Borderless access to Dermatologists! MedCredits’ goal is to globalize medicine!
- Instant Connection ~ Hippocrates is a user-friendly application, prompting patients through each step to submit cases, receive diagnosis and hear treatment recommendations with the touch of a button.
- Payment ~ Patients pay using MEDX, or ERC20 tokens, secured on Ethereum blockchain and regulated by self-executing smart contracts to track the automated transactions.
- Diagnosis ~ After successful transaction, patients receive diagnosis and recommendations from licensed medical professionals without ever having to leave their environment!
Advantages
MedCredits opens up hospital doors globally, providing borderless patient access to physicians, assisting to remove geographical barriers to clinics, and improving health outcomes worldwide. Overtime, MedCredits hopes to extend its reach to other medical specialties, such as Cardiology and Neurology, to interconnect EMR with other departments and hopefully global systems.
- Allows for physicians to access demographics who have limited mobility or means to attend regular appointments.
- Records are available through secured access, giving patients the keys for their health!
- Patients are given access to healthcare professionals for diagnosis, referral or treatment anywhere, at anytime!
Disadvantages
Research reveals that people spend over 90% of their free time on applications, though this doesn’t necessarily mean we should encourage it. Incentivizing patients through leaving star ratings, may impact an insurance company’s decision to provide coverage or include clinics in their network. This has possible ramifications on who is able to receive treatments locally, or be made to rely on smart technologies alone.
People as Links
It’s undeniable that aspects of telemedicine and blockchain technology help to streamline healthcare processes. Studies may show that more people are comfortable interacting through a screen. Admittedly, it’s difficult to untangle persons with technology, as one will often times support the other. Companies like MedCredits make telemedicine possible, and with some more research, can hopefully help us drive our health forward into the future!
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Brennan is a blockchain technical adviser in the healthcare sector and blockchain entrepreneur who has worked on developing proprietary concepts for both artificial intelligence and enterprise blockchain. He is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Health Professions where he earned a M.S. in biomedical informatics.