DR BLOCKCHAINSo the quote below wanted feedback on the comments left by a "Dr Blockchain" over at reddit. Here are my thoughts.
I don't know who this "Dr" is but I can tell you he has the tech savvy of a rock when it comes to healthcare tech and the industry. I seriously doubt he works in healthcare at all.
My name is Zachary Bauer and I have been in development since 1999. I have developed healthcare software, mobile and web applications for numerous companies including Essence Healthcare in St. Louis, MO and Med Assets in Dallas, Texas before they were acquired by Visient. Let me just address some of his concerns here.
(1) Electronic Health Record (EHR) companies are clawing and screaming for new ways to protect patient data. Instead of thinking they will be resistant to blockchain technology, they're probably doing high level investigations into its use. Chances are that one of these companies may purchase PTOY and whatever developed technology they have. Healthcare companies themselves are HUNGRY for secure ways to transfer patient data. Every year, hospitals and healthcare companies are paying out MILLIONS of dollars in HIPAA fines for breached patient data. As a developer, this one issue was the biggest concern in any project. AVOID THE FINES BY PROTECTING THE DATA. As understanding of blockchain technology grows, EHR companies and patient data experts are going to run to this in hope of securing data and stopping the flow of fines their companies have to pay every year for not being up to date and insecurely storing data.
(2)Blockchain tech is secure. By its very nature it prevents data leaking and fraudulent data from entering in. Industry regulations and compliance measures will be thrown out the window because they will no longer be needed. Or they can be rewritten for the blockchain. This point is just really a non-starter. Compliance measures for this industry are literally being rewritten on a weekly basis as it is now. Nothing new.
(3)Potential Implementation Cost? Heck dude, this is why I think "Dr. Blockhead" doesn't know anything. Teenagers are creating coins and launching ICO's from their parents basements. I really don't see a lot of cost being associated with training office personnel or staff on this process. It's all back end. They download a program. Enter in their keys for access and they are off and running. What implementation costs is "dr blockhead" assuming will be needed?
(4)Technical challenges? I'm not aware of any MIT case study. Maybe someone can post a link to that here. But I don't see a lot of challenges other than familiarity with regulators on the abilities of blockchain tech. Biggest hurdles are going to be Hipaa. Will it be a universal blockchain that the whole of healthcare uses approved by Hipaa? Or will EHR companies use there own with communication taking place between multiple chain environments? Who knows but these decisions can be decided by the bureaucrats. The important thing to remember is that the technology being developed here is solid. PTOY is one of the first in the market and its good to be on board early as an investor.
(5)The good "Dr" is correct that healthcare companies are very RISK averse. This is why they are so HUNGRY for alternatives. They are scared to death of fines resulting from patient data leaks. Many of these companies are staffed and funded by people on the cutting edge themselves and will be VERY EXCITED to hear about a technology that can absolutely secure patient data and reduce fines and prevent fraud.
STAFF ISSUESAs for the claims about Patientory and their staff? I have no idea. But I know the political winds in the medical industry many times lean left and a minority women led company is a jackpot when needed to deal with bureaucrats and the politically correct bozos in government agencies like HIPAA. The CEO of PTOY is black and a woman. That is gold.
Time will tell but its good to be in early on this industry change, because a change is coming. Everyone in big industries in this country is exploring blockchain technology. I just talked to a Walmart executive this week (I live in Northwest Arkansas) and they are R&Ding blockchain tech big time. Blockchain technology is coming to all major industries and that includes healthcare. The healthcare companies will pay big bucks to implement a technology that will save it from hefty fines in the future. Any company that is developing blockchain use for the medical industry is a win in my book. I'm keeping an eye on all of them and PTOY is a big one.
If anyone else has thoughts on Dr. Blockhead's comments, I'd love to hear them especially if you have worked in the industry.
This project has resulted in a clinician strongly calling into question the reputation, claims, team and approach of PTOY on reddit under r/cryptocurrency. As someone whose family members have suffered from the medical communities failure to find a common-sense way to make our medical records seamlessly available, I am a strong advocate of change in this arena. If PTOY is the answer, I'd like its leaders to refute the claims made by the clinician dr_blockchain on that reddit. Here is a copy/paste:
Background: Recently I attended a CIO roundtable where we had participants from most midwest and east coast health systems + 1 national health system. One of the topics discussed was blockchain.
We reached a consensus that for the following reasons blockchain solutions will not be deployed at scale in the US within the foreseeable future:
(1) Incumbent major EHR companies and their strongholds in health systems' IT departments
(2) Industry regulations and lack of guidelines/compliance measures
(3) Potential implementation costs
(4) Technical challenges vis-a-vis blockchain in medical record management that are yet to be resolved! See the MIT case study!
(5) Healthcare systems are the most risk averse corporations you can find - cultural challenges
A couple major red flags about patientory(PTOY):
1-Their team is severely underequipped to handle what they claim. They lack not only the technical expertise but also the management capabilities to build meaningful senior executive relationships
2-They are outrageously overstating their "partnerships". One of the roundtable attendants knows Rick Daniels and knows for a fact that KP (Kaiser) is not pursuing any blockchain solutions at scale.
Calling out Michael Rubin (the Director of Communications for Patientory) - Patientory's claims of partnering with Kaiser bordering on fraud. I strongly recommend that you take Kaiser's logo off your website. You are misleading token holders for monetary gain.
PTOY's partnership with Kaiser is probably the pet project of a mid-level manager (director of X at a regional market) at most. Their other partnerships are basically incubators that provided them early funding to test out ideas.
3-Their "foundation"...Does anyone seriously think that a CIO would pay up $250K to become the member of an obscure entity that has no industry relevance?
Stay away. This company will be on the news like Theranos. Soon.
