Welcome to MedCredits!

MedCredits is the first blockchain powered platform connecting doctors and patients worldwide on a decentralized network.

The scope of our blog, however, expands well beyond the MedCredits platform! Our writers and editors consist of a team of US trained medical doctors, dentists and medical students who are well versed in blockchain technology, healthcare administration, patient care and the business of medicine. This blog will provide you with updates on the latest cutting-edge developments in blockchain based medicine. Of course, if you have any stories or tips, please reach out to us!

An introduction to the MedCredits platform…

Our goal is simple. Decentralize medical care to reduce costs, expand access and maximize convenience. How is this possible? The following very recent technological advances have paved the way for the development of the MedCredits platform:

• The widespread adoption of smartphones with high resolution cameras allow people worldwide to communicate instantly via app, text, photo or video.

• The development of advanced peer-to-peer (P2P) networks brought decentralization one step closer by allowing the elimination of costly centralized intermediaries.

• Bitcoin and blockchain tokens with trustless, distributed ledger systems introduced a new payment system that does not rely on traditional banking portals. These tokens can be transferred quickly, anonymously and securely, and are easily integrated into P2P networks.

• Smart contracts allowed automated payments and contractual relationships between two or more parties in a trustless manner. Ethereum, the most prominent platform with this capability, is rapidly expanding in the blockchain economy.

Together, these major advancements allow the development of sophisticated decentralized networks connecting transacting parties worldwide with essentially zero middlemen. This is the first time in history that this is possible.

MedCredits is not the first platform to recognize the immense potential of these systems. OpenBazaar aims to be a decentralized platform for the exchange of goods. Sia and Storj strive to provide decentralized cloud storage. Augur is in the final stages of completing the beta version of a decentralized prediction market. GameCredits is transforming the payment system within the gaming sector. Nearly every sector of commerce is rapidly being revolutionized by blockchain technology.

This technology, however, has made very little inroads in medicine. To date, we do not know of a decentralized network connecting patients and doctors for medical services. Some have postulated that a blockchain based electronic medical record (EMR) system is one way that the blockchain can transform medicine. Indeed, there are a couple of startups attempting to create blockchain based EMRs. However, with collectively over 50 years in health care experience as clinicians, my partners and I know the challenges associated with switching EMR systems. Medical offices, hospitals and clinics spend millions of dollars purchasing their current EMR systems, training personnel, and transferring enormous quantities of data to the new systems. Unfortunately, this overhead makes swapping systems a monumental task — not to mention the regulatory compliance associated with handling medical records.

We believe that creating a decentralized EMR cannot be approached directly. Rather, a platform needs to be built that provides advantages to the people who actually use the system — the doctors and patients. This platform is MedCredits. By incentivizing patients and doctors with a more affordable and convenient system, we will be laying the foundation for a larger healthcare network. As the platform grows, we will release software upgrades that will organically transform MedCredits into both an EMR and medical services platform that is intuitively interconnected.