How will MediChain Impact the Medical Data Industry?

The medical data industry is not a new one. It has been around for a long time and all these while, without your knowledge your medical information has been sold, re-sold and use countless of times by pharmaceutical industries and research institutes. These medical data are usually anonymized so that the sellers of our data do not get ensnarled into legal issues, and we as patients are not able to claim ownership of our data; hence our data can be sold without our knowledge. Although many of the usage of our data is for altruistic reasons such as cancer research and researching for cures of fatal illness, our medical data is being sold and we have no control over of our own medical and health information.

Let’s discuss the impact of MediChain on the Medical data industry. To do this we would first need to understand the state of the medical data industry and who are some of the key players in this industry who are making tonnes of profits from patients’ medical data. Then we can understand the impact that MediChain would have on the industry.

QuintilesIMS founded in 1982 is the world largest medical data provider. It is a $20 billion company. But you have never heard of it as it has been operating in the background together with medical professionals who are working with our health data. This is a multibillion dollar industry that even involves IBM.

Your pharmacy, your doctor can all legally scrub your name out and sell your data. Anyone who has access to some type of medical information can trade it. To which you have not consented. We are not even aware that our medical data has been used by pharmaceutical companies or drugs companies for research. Perhaps our data was used to discover a life saving drugs, or perhaps our data was used for harmful research; we do not have the ability to know that.

The use of this information is broad. The data can be used for research. The success of this research you will never know. It could be used for sales and marketing purposes. Having medical data of millions of patients, pharmaceutical companies can potentially know where to sell their products and how to sell their products. And even know how much to price their medical products to extract the maximum profits from patients. This is the power of big data.  Pharmaceutical companies could also be targeting doctors who do not prescribe enough of their products. 

Would you not want to know who is selling your information and to who?

The US government has spent a large amount to money to promote the use of electronic medical records. Even so few people have access to their full medical records. Not many people are able to even know how to do so. We need a medical data company that is customer-facing so that we as a customer or patient can understand how to maintain our own medical data. 

Another characteristic of the industry is your medical records are never actually available when you need them, in an emergency. This is when we really need our medical records and we may not be in a state to be able to inform the doctors how to get access to our information. The industry is characterised as being secretive and in some case not acting in our best interest. We need a way for our information to be available when we need it yet kept private when it is our right for it to be private.

Even the broader healthcare industry is still ancient and slow to change, with exam-room computers still clunky and old. We need someone to being about much needed change to this industry.

Enter MediChain a company that wants to save lives with the block-chain. They want to do this by putting medical information on the block-chain. The company would still ensure that the data is safe, secure and private. Patient data would be stored in blocks in the block-chain. This data would be sold on disclosed marketplaces. Pharma and research companies wanting to purchase the data would need to purchase the companies utility token MCU.

If MediChain succeeds in its mission it would as a start bring much needed transparency to the industry. Our medical records would no longer be scattered across various doctors and hospitals. They would be available to us from birth to death. Medical records could be updated immediately and from anywhere. Medical records error would also be avoided as records could be checked. We as patients have full control over accessing their healthcare data and can control who sees their data and what they see. This will allow for instantly updating and transferring of medical data. Patients can share their records, get second opinions, and communicate online with medical professionals.

Imagine being in a life threatening situation and not being able to talk. The doctors saving your life could see your full medical history. They are then able to help you in the best possible way. As a patient you are able to access your data anywhere. Imagine being able to access this data not only at the family doctor, but on holiday in a foreign country where you have gone and can’t speak the local language. 

Medical records on the block-chain would also give greater control of this information. The ability to decide whether you information can be sold to a particular company or not. Then knowing what this information will be used for. This would give the ownership of our medical data back to our own hands. Maybe we can even be part of a ground breaking drug discovery.

With all this in mind, MediChain refers to itself as the big data medical information provider. The company will rely on big data technology to stay ahead of competitors. Artificial Intelligence and data analytics applied to big data that is accurate and truly representative of a population. This will surely mean newer cheaper life curing drugs. Now that is exciting. 

All this would bring some much needed change to this old industry.