Bitcoin as a catalyst for Health Care (Worldwide)

[newtothescene]

What (if any) uses/benefits can the Bitcoin currency offer to improve both the care people receive and reduce the overall cost?  Seems like every country has a unique approach to healthcare and I am wondering if the unified currency model can benefit the adaptation to and improvement of healthcare in a variety of countries.  Anything is fair game here, just looking for ideas or input. 

Everyone needs some kind of healthcare and everyone needs some kind of currency.  Why not combine two universal needs to make both stronger for all people? 

Ideas/Discussion - GO

[bg002h]

I'm a doctor. I can't think of a way Bitcoin can help (other than auto-taxing all transactions to fund health care stuff...but that would be a regulatory option overlaid on Bitcoin, not really Bitcoin itself)

[Chet]

When people stop having to pay fees at every turn perhaps they can pay for decent health care?

[Wilikon]

I am not a doctor, but if you want to help on the long term, as in 2140 like long term invest your bitcoin in tech. The next big thing could be Quantum Biology. http://worldsciencefestival.com/webcasts/quantum_biology

Sure I would love to cure cancer now.  But like nuclear fusion quantum biology could be the answer for a lots of ills, on the long term. Right now the model is to target a group of people with a prescription. If you belong to the group of people with an allergy, you are out of luck with that medication.

Bitcoin is about being your own bank. Why not have a healthcare system based on a very individual model, unique to you and no one else. No more side effects as the prescription would be developed for one unique patient, and not a group of patients. No more waste with 1000s of pills unused because of your pharmacy with more and more refills. No more healthcare black hole. The deficit would be greatly reduced.

Human genome + quantum biology = the future of healthcare bitcoin?

Everything we do now is obsolete. We need to think big, out of the box big for the next 50 years and help those big brains with our bitcoins, and not government beggers like GE with exclusive contracts on healthcare.

[BitcoinUK]

well people with certain 'medical' issues already do spend their bitcoins on 'medicine'

the punchline:
.. SR sells their 'medicine'

i think getting the medical industry to take on bitcoin is a long term option in many decades. The more important goal for today, is food and utilities.

[newtothescene]

Appreciate all the input - I am working in IT for a major health care company and we have a division that does really long term IT projects that I hope to get into soon.  My work now is a mix of support and projects and I really enjoy the research and projects aspect.  There are likely going to be opportunities to invest in technology to improve care for the member and reducing boundaries/cost to that care is part of our mission. 

Thanks

[bozak]

If BTC became widely accepted (big if), the cost of the hospital services could be tracked on the blockchain.  This would in theory allow consumers to easily compare prices paid (consumers not using health insurance).  This could in theory force hospitals to charge non-insurance customers the same rate as insurance customers. 

[jdbtracker]

1)   Buy an ASIC, start mining, find companies that build equipment that you can use for medical research that accept bitcoins, build your own supercomputer with GPUs, Do research with that supercomputer for your patients, find ways to network that supercomputer so it accelerates any type of imaging you do in your hospital(fmri,CAT, etc), build a network tell other hospitals about what you are doing, charge for access to your supercomputer to networked hospitals, let other hospitals adopt your idea so that worldwide health is improved ASAP. Build a giant networked supercomputer on the p2p standard for a massive parallel supercomputer hospital network, invest in solar energy to keep energy costs down.

2)   Buy more ASICs for bitcoin mining, Buy FPGAs like the Vertex 7 to have programmable chips that can do any specialized work you need, start using the Hospital supercomputer network to design the next generation of HealthCare oriented ASICs using what you learn from the FPGAs sell your chips to other hospitals, make your chips open source to maximize innovation, savings, and allow other hospitals to be able to charge for their own design.

Being able to have your innovation opensource and allowing others to be able to make a living off that innovation creates a 1000 fold acceleration in world wide adoption, design innovation, eventual money saving return as other healthcare techs find improvements in efficiency and features.

apply for a creative commons licence with the ability to charge for the design, this way if they want to innovate they better have a revolutionary design if they want to get out of the creative commons licence.

30 years from now, if this is followed it will be the end of disease as we know them, we will just have to worry about man made pathogens; with the kind of power the singularity that Ray Kurzweil has spoken of will bring, i'm sure someone will figure out how to turn someone into jelly without killing them sooner or later, we'll need a cure for that.

3) pay people in bitcoins to use their GPUs to do medical research for the Hospital network, create new drugs, the infrastructure that can be created is thousands of times greater than anything the pharmaceutical companies can afford... trust me there are a lot of people that cannot keep up with Bitcoins Encryption system, they are forced to upgrade to keep up we'll need those nvidia Cuda ready cards and those inefficienct GPUs to create the next generation of medical breakthroughs.

A Radeon 4870 is not very efficient per watt compared to a Radeon 7970, every generation doubles performance per watt so if you keep a flat rate based on the minimum acceptable Cuda or OpenCL card you'll make sure to get these people using their computer to help research, only pay in bitcoins that way you don't have to worry about fluctuations in USD price, it's a flatrate fee per work unit returned.

4) Sell your old units to people that want them in the third world, lots of tech savvy youngsters who would be willing to pay for outdated GPUs, ASICs and FPGA miners where their exchange rate and cost of living is quite reduced when compared to the developing world; This will expand the health care networks computing power gradually, no processing cycle can go to waste.

5) Die happy 1000 years from now knowing you started the Health Care revolution that granted you that long life.

[morningtime]

Bitcoin can contribute to a decentralized healthcare plan. People who need insurance simply pay a fee to a decentralized Bitcoin escrow network for their healthcare. Certified professionals (docters) hold a private key to tap into that escrow fund. If 6 peers (3 patients, 3 doctors) approve the need for healthcare payments, the patient receives the cash, which he can use to pay the doctor.

Advantages of a P2P healthcare system:

1. Everybody can sign up - no background checks, no denial of insurance (democrats love this);
2. Everybody can decide their own monthly fee;
3. Anyone who has paid into the pool can get healthcare;
4. System maintenance cost is much lower than commercial healthcare (you get more healthcare for your $);
5. The government cannot force you to participate (republicans love this);
6. The network/protocol can automatically identify abusers and lock them out permanently;
7. people can organize different pools. For example, republican billionaires don't have to be in the same pool as the 99% - everybody is free to organise their own pool.

This satisfies both 'democrat' and 'republican' needs. In fact, any group of people could organise their own healtcare pool. The 99% could have their own pool and the 1% could have their own pool. Who cares?

Sure, we need to put in the security checks to minimize abuse. Sure, there will be "elite healthcare pools" and "pools for the poor". I think this is inevitable. Nevertheless, people will receive more healthcare than traditionally. And that's the point.

Years ago I had this idea of a 'P2P healthcare' system. Bitcoin got me thinking about it again...

[Wilikon]

Bitcoin can contribute to a decentralized healthcare plan. People who need insurance simply pay a fee to a decentralized Bitcoin escrow network for their healthcare. Certified professionals (docters) hold a private key to tap into that escrow fund. If 6 peers (3 patients, 3 doctors) approve the need for healthcare payments, the patient receives the cash, which he can use to pay the doctor.

Advantages of a P2P healthcare system:

1. Everybody can sign up - no background checks, no denial of insurance (democrats love this);
2. Everybody can decide their own monthly fee;
3. Anyone who has paid into the pool can get healthcare;
4. System maintenance cost is much lower than commercial healthcare (you get more healthcare for your $);
5. The government cannot force you to participate (republicans love this);
6. The network/protocol can automatically identify abusers and lock them out permanently;
7. people can organize different pools. For example, republican billionaires don't have to be in the same pool as the 99% - everybody is free to organise their own pool.

This satisfies both 'democrat' and 'republican' needs. In fact, any group of people could organise their own healtcare pool. The 99% could have their own pool and the 1% could have their own pool. Who cares?

Sure, we need to put in the security checks to minimize abuse. Sure, there will be "elite healthcare pools" and "pools for the poor". I think this is inevitable. Nevertheless, people will receive more healthcare than traditionally. And that's the point.

Years ago I had this idea of a 'P2P healthcare' system. Bitcoin got me thinking about it again...

I will say this again and again: it is amazing how the bitcoin concept opens people's mind for thinking out of the box, beyond political agendas. I am sure i am fighting one you guys/gals on another website because we would have nothing in common, but here it's almost like an oasis (that is, if your stay away from the bitcointalk political section hahaha!)

[jdbtracker]

Bitcoin can contribute to a decentralized healthcare plan. People who need insurance simply pay a fee to a decentralized Bitcoin escrow network for their healthcare. Certified professionals (docters) hold a private key to tap into that escrow fund. If 6 peers (3 patients, 3 doctors) approve the need for healthcare payments, the patient receives the cash, which he can use to pay the doctor.

Advantages of a P2P healthcare system:

1. Everybody can sign up - no background checks, no denial of insurance (democrats love this);
2. Everybody can decide their own monthly fee;
3. Anyone who has paid into the pool can get healthcare;
4. System maintenance cost is much lower than commercial healthcare (you get more healthcare for your $);
5. The government cannot force you to participate (republicans love this);
6. The network/protocol can automatically identify abusers and lock them out permanently;
7. people can organize different pools. For example, republican billionaires don't have to be in the same pool as the 99% - everybody is free to organise their own pool.

This satisfies both 'democrat' and 'republican' needs. In fact, any group of people could organise their own healtcare pool. The 99% could have their own pool and the 1% could have their own pool. Who cares?

Sure, we need to put in the security checks to minimize abuse. Sure, there will be "elite healthcare pools" and "pools for the poor". I think this is inevitable. Nevertheless, people will receive more healthcare than traditionally. And that's the point.

Years ago I had this idea of a 'P2P healthcare' system. Bitcoin got me thinking about it again...

+1 Citizen

Could we make this system to work on a blockchain? lets say someone needs medical attention, but they only have x amount of dollars, so they sign up for a doctor that they can afford in their area, someone helps them out and they have enough money to get off the waiting list at said doctor to go to a more expensive doctor that can see them immediately, taking them off the lower rate doctors list. 

I'm thinking about efficiency, distributing the patients as needed,

Your idea is excellent, it follows the Chinese Doctor model you pay the doctors to keep you healthy, but you have to be aware of law limits with this method, a doctor has to signup for a insurance provider licence to get this working... can this be facilitated if the doctors work as a group?

[newtothescene]

Awesome ideas and discussion!  Making notes, opening my mind and enjoying the ideas of the future. 

[Realpra]

What (if any) uses/benefits can the Bitcoin currency offer to improve both the care people receive and reduce the overall cost?  Seems like every country has a unique approach to healthcare and I am wondering if the unified currency model can benefit the adaptation to and improvement of healthcare in a variety of countries.  Anything is fair game here, just looking for ideas or input. 

Everyone needs some kind of healthcare and everyone needs some kind of currency.  Why not combine two universal needs to make both stronger for all people? 

Ideas/Discussion - GO

Use SilkRoad for cheaper copy medicin = afford life saving medicin you otherwise could not.

[Elwar]

Perhaps Bitcoin can be used for black market medicine.

Like doctors treating patients for money.

[amincd]

Bitcoin could be used to crowdfund medical research and development. A site where people propose projects and ideas and post project updates and the world rewards them with microdonations would leapfrog traditional medical research.

[jdbtracker]

Hey OP

If you need help we are willing to help. programming, research, networking, legal, etc, anything you need, I bet you we can pull this off the ground with every single idea we have.

CrowdSource, CrowdFund, p2p research, encryption system to keep patient data safe, etc.

if we consider that every contribution given in any area required 10,000 - 20,000 hours from a master, 5000 or less from average people, that means $150,000.00 dollars worth of knowledge from every single person involved.

The manhattan project cost 20 billion dollars so the contribution of  130,000 people overtime would make this a worldwide success story, just gotta make sure those people are motivated to earn a living.

well have BTC-BTC signs in their eyes. There is no lack of Financiers, just lack of people.

[newtothescene]

Thanks for the ideas all - at this point I am mostly in the gathering information and ideas phase to see what others think is possible and beneficial. 

[bg002h]

Bitcoin can contribute to a decentralized healthcare plan. People who need insurance simply pay a fee to a decentralized Bitcoin escrow network for their healthcare. Certified professionals (docters) hold a private key to tap into that escrow fund. If 6 peers (3 patients, 3 doctors) approve the need for healthcare payments, the patient receives the cash, which he can use to pay the doctor.

Advantages of a P2P healthcare system:

1. Everybody can sign up - no background checks, no denial of insurance (democrats love this);
2. Everybody can decide their own monthly fee;
3. Anyone who has paid into the pool can get healthcare;
4. System maintenance cost is much lower than commercial healthcare (you get more healthcare for your $);
5. The government cannot force you to participate (republicans love this);
6. The network/protocol can automatically identify abusers and lock them out permanently;
7. people can organize different pools. For example, republican billionaires don't have to be in the same pool as the 99% - everybody is free to organise their own pool.

This satisfies both 'democrat' and 'republican' needs. In fact, any group of people could organise their own healtcare pool. The 99% could have their own pool and the 1% could have their own pool. Who cares?

Sure, we need to put in the security checks to minimize abuse. Sure, there will be "elite healthcare pools" and "pools for the poor". I think this is inevitable. Nevertheless, people will receive more healthcare than traditionally. And that's the point.

Years ago I had this idea of a 'P2P healthcare' system. Bitcoin got me thinking about it again...

You could do this in fiat too...I still see fraud as a big issue.  Doctors are not immune to committing fraud.  In fact, fraudulent self-referred medical imaging is a major problem in health care (it's technically not a violation of the laws the prohibit self-referral if the imaging equipment is "regular in-office equipment"...such as an urinalysis test strip machine...but, some doctors claim MRI's and PET scanners are not sophisticated pieces of equipment but just routine office stuff; anyhow, medicare bought it hook line and sinker).

[newtothescene]

Fraud is one of the biggest areas of concern within healthcare.  If we could find ways to reduce fraud, healthcare would be a lot cheaper and more people could have access to it.  I like the idea of using transaction logs within the blockchain as a way to verify financial aspects of the exchange.  Maybe there could exist a health record blockchain/"coin" that all parties have access to.  Since the unique identifiers are anonymous there wouldn't be any risk of HIPAA violations.  The same way that transactions are "confirmed" we could do something similar for confirming treatments.  Keeps the patients and doctors honest about what they charge.  If they only get payed based on confirmed transactions in the log then it would be a whole lot easier to spot fraud this way...

[marcus_of_augustus]

It's a new form of money not a miracle cure for all of society's problems ....