Bitcoin as a catalyst for Health Care (Worldwide)

[jdbtracker]

You would be amazed, I got bored, cleaning my house so I thought up some more ideas on how to implement bitcoins technology for healthcare.

Blockchain as a public ledger of patients in waiting for more efficient distribution of resources. good idea.

Funding future technology, long term and requires capital.

Distributed hard coded virtual healthcare, take out the middleman, excellent idea but quite possible extreme opposition from insurance companies
loved by patients, can't apply x>y= no health insurance... impossible to abuse a hard coded open source system; The health care contract is the overall
available money in the system pegged to a market value according to available positions, it would be in the best interest of hospitals to keep their open spots
down to a minimum by lowering cost to bring by more patients. it can even be used to assign and keep track of patients being monitored by Doctors and Nurses
If they get over a set amount of patients their wages go up, slowing down the amount of patients coming their way, The best Doctors with the highest demand
get the better wages according to their track record recorded on the blockchain... healthy patients equal more money for them, more difficult higher cost
procedures gravitate more doctors to fill the gap... it's a market based approach that keeps track of what is going on in the system at all times. Good for Doctors,Nurses and Patients.

Encrypted collaborative healthcare, patient comes in with encrypted key for his files, Doctor gets immediate access to all data stored by previous doctors visited by patient.
If research is needed special health care miners, specialized ASIC machinery made to wade through the data, go through all databases x'ing out all encrypted patient details
and applying statistical analysis over all patient data in all connected hospitals on request by authorized healthcare researchers.

Using Bitcoin... buy an ASIC, the Bitcoin lottery is subsidizing the growth of the network till the transaction fees vs reward for the lottery becomes insanely difficult to justify.
Think of it as Trickle up economics, Bernacky is printing out the cash at the top and Bitcoin is distributing the cash at the bottom... till the fees become more lucrative.

start Bitcoin fundraisers... if people convert their cash to bitcoins, and you only use them when the price is high, then you win, over all, the wins and losses are negligible for
a non-profit organization, it's like gaining x amount of dollars above what was donated... if always spent at it's peak.

start your own HealthCoins, copy bitcoins system exactly and pay people for doing research on your behalf , have people exchange HealthCoins for Bitcoins when they need to
opt in to the HealthCoin blockchain for medical insurance. The Research miners get paid in HealthCoins early adopters begin distributing the HealthCoins as a reward for helping
you find new cures or help out existing patients, use the altruism of early adopters to help spur the movement, knowing that they are paying for their insurance.

and you must not forget that Bitcoin is not just a money transfer program, or a currency, it is a stock option all in one! The more volume of transactions per day the higher the price goes.
Same for HealthCoin, the more people opt in to the program the more valuable each HealthCoin becomes, giving the same benefits as Bitcoin, people are incentivised to stay with your plan
because the longer they stay the more valuable your Coin becomes, the more incentivized your organization becomes to do a great job.

Bitcoins system is perfect for this type of shift, if people are doing a good job in their organization you'll get a market based appreciation in your wages asap, people will vote with their cash.

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[IslandGuy]

The cost of healthcare and it's insurance is important. it's also the issue that goes across all borders.

However another good issue to consider is using the blockchain to  query anonymous real time health records.
another post mentioned using a hardware (private) key to access these records, which would be good.

I think using anonymous health data in the block chain to spot large trends in a community can be even bigger.
Imagine:

                         Watching a community health problem trend in real time and making preventive changes to limit the problem.

                         What about using the Big Data concept for sub communities to decide where to place health services.

                         Even anonymous Genealogy/ health records of large extended families in medium sized towns, cities  could be good.
                         One would simply assign a tag that represents a family name in that town, city and small country.

                         Health reward through bitcoins to highlight and support communities that are doing it right can also be used.

                         Taking a census every decade not the answer.
                         its about catching the problems before or as it happens to make a change.



The blockchain can give us that stream of data that is needed. 




                       

[newtothescene]

Thanks again everyone for their comments/suggestions.  I will be recording the ideas and compiling some type of presentation to give to our next generation projects group to see what kind of investment we can make in positive changes

Probably will be a few more weeks before I present, so plenty of time for additional comments/ideas.

Thanks!

[FCTaiChi]

I think the ability to do micro payments could help.
I'm not sure what is coming in the future for medicine, I'm sure many of the things mentioned in this thread are on the way, and sooner than we would expect. 
At the moment though I believe the most undervalued medicine is preventive.  There are cultures that have explored this aspect for thousands of years, finding ways to make the practitioner more resilient to stress and disease.
Not only will micro payments be helpful to find the proper fit for a teacher or method. (from DIY to one on one classes)  Doctors, specialists, nurse practitioners could also do short online interviews.  This could be helpful to find the right person, and allow people who want more control over their services to not feel like they are restricted by an insurance company or whatever random recommendations they are able to get. 
Of course in this situation a micro payment might be .2 - .05 BTC but in comparison to the normal overhead you have to pay for just by walking in a door this is nothing.

[datz]

Better Insurance.

[Xzis]

The long term goal is to use bitcoin to make healthcare self sufficient and free to the world.  I am currently working on a paper that will explain the structure.  Basically, to start, everyone who joins the bit care health network will receive miners. Those miners send the bitcoins back to the health network becoming the biggest mining operation in the world.  Because it will be a huge amount, Bitcoin itself will be the pool, and monitor the blockchain for fairness (individuals will also have this ability).  The bitcoin itself will be invested (either into real currency or stay digital.  It will also be used to exchange payments to doctors in their local currency.  Profits will be invested into multiple industries around the world in order to sustain the system regardless of if bitcoins can be mined or not (necessary consumption goods), such is the case that will happen in the year 2146.  Eventually the products you buy such as salt or cars, because of investments will return portions of that to the bit care health network, (you go to the store and buy lets say bitbread to make a sandwich).  Because of new "bit" industries which arise to make goods for healthcare it also creates jobs while at the same time decentralizing insurance and healthcare. Eventually healthcare and insurance becomes a single payer peer to peer system facilitated by bitcoin (cryptocurrency) with healthcare paid for by consumption only, (which is sustainable as everyone consumes).  Then, everyone around the world can visit any doctor in the world that is a member of the bitcare network for free.  All they will have to do is continue to buy the same things they always buy, but their healthcare will actually own all or portions of that.  The bitcoin is an excellent way to initiate this exchange.  This system will remove governmental controls/nationalized healthcare, and base it on free enterprise. While at the same time the bitcoin can be used in the single payer system to pay doctors and hospitals in their local currencies. I hope I explained that well enough.  It will take me a little while to finish the paper itself.  This is just the starting basics: www.bitcarehealthnetwork.org

[zachcope]

For what it's worth I am a doctor.
The other day I was considering how open source has created complex computing and financial structures that we might have previously thought needed big business.

Perhaps there is some way a blockchain reward based system could be used to crowdfund future medical research. Not sure how yet though.

Block chains could be used for mutual assistance savings schemes where members would vote on treatments covered in an efficient, representative way without having to reveal the identity of the individuals and their illnesses to others int the group.

[marcus_of_augustus]

For what it's worth I am a doctor.
The other day I was considering how open source has created complex computing and financial structures that we might have previously thought needed big business.

Perhaps there is some way a blockchain reward based system could be used to crowdfund future medical research. Not sure how yet though.

Block chains could be used for mutual assistance savings schemes where members would vote on treatments covered in an efficient, representative way without having to reveal the identity of the individuals and their illnesses to others int the group.

MediCoin?

... redeemable for private health care.

[newtothescene]

Something along those lines yep - I need to revisit my write up on this and see about submitting it for review.

[miguelitoRD]

Charlie Lee alluded to using the blockchain to solve complex DNA sequencing to learn the roots of illnesses among other things. He talked about it being something an alt currency blockchain could accomplish, but I see it being more a layer on the original bitcoin protocol. Maybe the bitcoin 3.0 movement, where we are using the hundreds of millions of transactions going on every day to solve these complex problems in our bodies and environment.

[VforVictory]

Who needs Obamacare when you have Bitcare?

[davedx]

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.

There is this place: https://www.microryza.com/ "FUND SCIENCE YOU BELIEVE IN"

We could just get them to accept BTC. Done!

[CompNsci]

At least in the U.S., one of the primary problems with healthcare is the lack of a real market for the products and services. Since the tax code provides that health insurance premiums are considered pre-tax, most people have their insurance through their employers. Thus most purchasers of insurance don't directly know the premium being paid and evaluate it against the benefits received.

The apparent cost of bottom dollar coverage, like only paying $20 for your $100 primary care visit, is reduced, and so people pay to insure things that wouldn't normally be insured. They also don't tend to know the true cost of the visit, the lab tests that are ordered, the medicines, etc. In such a market, of course the price of everything goes up and up.

The question I am puzzling over is, how could bitcoin break that cycle and put price incentives back?

[newtothescene]

At least in the U.S., one of the primary problems with healthcare is the lack of a real market for the products and services. Since the tax code provides that health insurance premiums are considered pre-tax, most people have their insurance through their employers. Thus most purchasers of insurance don't directly know the premium being paid and evaluate it against the benefits received.

The apparent cost of bottom dollar coverage, like only paying $20 for your $100 primary care visit, is reduced, and so people pay to insure things that wouldn't normally be insured. They also don't tend to know the true cost of the visit, the lab tests that are ordered, the medicines, etc. In such a market, of course the price of everything goes up and up.

The question I am puzzling over is, how could bitcoin break that cycle and put price incentives back?

It would probably need to start outside of the USA first and then after proving successful we could work it in here.  Other issues with USA is the HIPAA and the legal requirement for information to be private.  Some type of blockchain record of my frequent Dr visits are off putting to some/many right now.  Many other countries don't have the same laws or hangups about that stuff, so it would be easier to start somewhere else.  This could have amazing potential in countries where there is little or no healthcare.  There is a surprising amount of people who have smartphones in relatively undeveloped parts of the world. 

This idea is kind of like a snowball effect - once it takes hold somewhere, it will take off  

[jdbtracker]

A blockchain wouldn't always have to be so apparent, it could be cryptographically protected like in Bitmessage; No one but the people who know the code can see the data.

The blockchain part of Bitcoin could simply be a synchronized back-end for a Hospitals network, every time a nurse admits a patient, they send a update that updates all copies of the ledger, this way wherever they go afterward a doctor can have a patients complete record with contact information from all previous doctor assesments. The ledger could be made tamper proof or encrypted so only authorized people can view that information.

A lot of different information can be put on a synchronized database, patient plans, insurance, pre-payment information and for qualified providers global coverage, synchronized so wherever you go, you can be sure you'll be taken care of properly without anyone following you around, you may even choose to pay for a procedure lay-away style, synchronized so any participating Doctor can help you and redeem the money, through blockchain escrow.

for other situations it could be partly encrypted so that contact information for your insurance provider  can be seen by non-participating Health regions, or basic health information in case of emergency, like a medical tattoo but better.

I mean what can't you do, when you have a group of institutions sharing a synchronized ledger with all relevant data?

just imagine if there was a open DNA project where you could upload your entire DNA profile for researchers to analyze? any project that wanted to move forward in Human DNA research could whenever they needed the data they can have it,  in fact any research project can make all their data sets immediately available to anyone with a synchronized ledger, as soon as someone makes a new entry, everyone within the network knows... this truly is an amazing concensus building technology. It could improve collaborative research projects, by adding hierarchies and structure to the Blockchain.

adapt this p2p model with BitTorrent and you have a downloadable synchronized database. I was even thinking it could use magnet links as well, simply by grabbing the patients hash code, all relevant research viewed by the doctors could be tagged as they view it, done automatically by ledger updating software to the same ledger or another for doctor reference.

pass a hash of the data every so often into the Bitcoin blockchain or in any other blockchain and you have data security without applying your own proof of work scheme.


Edit: for maximum practicality, what we can do now is what should be implemented, a simple database synchronizing both web, telephone, and in person contact between patients and doctors, a simple backend that any front end interface can update, whether it is a smart phone based booking, or direct doctor to pharmacist/hospital staff co-ordination of services; Basically, a workflow based database, that simply requires that a Front end interface observe the changes in the Blockchain and alert the required staff or medical services... instant synchornization of all staff within a Health Region, that could be very powerful.

[newtothescene]

Thanks jdb - some good info to add to the discussion.

[IslandGuy]

I live in a small country were small changes, have a enormous affects quickly.

Bitcoin could be used as a currency in a local healthcare rewards program. Each person would earn cryptocurrency/BTC , from their  local insurance company, for quarterly personal health trend improvements in:

           *  weight/ BMI
           *  Blood pressure
           *  Blood sugar
           *  Resting Heart rate
           *   etc..

Tracking of participants  health, could be monitored day to day by phone apps and sensors on monitoring devices.(like smart weight scales.). However result could be certified monthly or quarterly  by a local health clinic doctor/nurse.  Of course this would be a voluntary program.

Cryptocurrency reward, could be redeemed at local businesses, that are in a major industry like tourism.
This will in turn would link people's health improvements to the health of the economy and  create jobs.

If a cryptocurrency other than BTC is used, the receiving business could exchange the current for fiat with
a health Insurance company. The funds could be used from insurance marketing budgets initially. However
lower cost from health improvement would cover it, going forward.

Contrary to the peer to peep nature of the blockchain, this method is very centralized.
However If executed  correctly, it could be a win for everyone. The obvious benefits are:

             * Lower healthcare and healthcare insurance cost
             * Frequent local tourism vacations for participants
             * a secondary market for locals to exchange/sell vacation rewards to foreigners
             * An Increase in tourism Jobs
             * Large improvements in personal and community health

[nutildah]

I'm a healthcare fraud analyst and as I am also very familiar with bitcoin by this point, I only see BTC being used to commit more fraud.

We (in America) shouldn't have to pay anything beyond a copay or deductible for health insurance, ala the rest of the industrialized world. Even Israel has a single-payer healthcare system. That should tell you how much we truly love screwing our own people.

Physicians, hospital administrators and big pharma are the new banker class. Just like lawyers have always been, physicians are now far more interested in helping themselves make money than helping out their clients, aka patients.

So what we we have now is a system that encourages and rewards doctors who learn how to abuse the claims reimbursement system and don't give a flying fuck about helping their patients.

I'm not saying all doctors are bad of course. But there are some greedy ones who ruin the system for the rest of us and render America the laughingstock of the developed world when it comes to healthcare.

TLDR: Money shouldn't be an issue in healthcare, but it is. We should know by now that wealthy people will do anything to attain more wealth. In the healthcare industry that often includes killing, mutilating or otherwise screwing up the lives of healthy people.

Try getting bitcoin to change the financial industry first. So far it has yet to move the needle, as global wealth discrepancy continues its march into all-time highs.

[Light]

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

Straight up this. I don't understand why some users have a perception fixated upon the idea that Bitcoin will somehow make the world a better place. Bitcoin is basically just the money you have in your wallet and bank account made marginally more efficient and able to avoid adjustments by government (i.e. expanding the money supply).

The only thing I could think of is potentially making it cheaper to transfer funds overseas for overseas health workers. But even then the difference would be minimal at best.

[bornil267645]

Let's not try to make Bitcoin the next big wonder. People try to imagine BTC into too much fantasy, and in reality they become hopeless with little price drop. So I think Bitcoin should remain as just day to day alternate currency. That will provide both stability and reliability for Bitcoin.