Initial Coin Offering (ICO): WELL

Hey Steemit,

Wanted to put together a little review of a new ICO that is currently happening that I find interesting.

The purpose:

I'm in the healthcare field as a surgeon in training and I have a public heath degree so I have been keeping an eye out for healthcare related ICOs that seem interesting.

A little background...The healthcare field, specifically in the US, is really in a pretty bad situation from an overall perspective. Can you still get the best healthcare in the world? Yes, I am absolutely convinced this is possible. I see and read about things on a daily basis that push the bounds of science and medicine. However, WILL you receive the best healthcare in the world? ehh, I'm not convinced. If you have a great healthcare plan and live near an awesome medical center, then yes, you probably will. The heroic lifesaving measure at your disposal probably rival the best in the world. I have more to say on this but it is a really long rant for another time :)

Unfortunately, a large portion of the population is not so lucky, 12.4% in 2016 per the CDC (40,000,000 people). Please keep in mind this number is going to increase without the individual mandate of the ACA. Even those of us with insurance plans often have large deductibles and co-pays to even visit the doctor. This places prevention below reaction which drives up the cost of healthcare. Furthermore, if you are in a part of the world without these resources, you have essentially no choice but to accept what you can get locally.

WELL seeks to help some of these issues with technology. Allowing medical records to be shared between providers on the network, medical goods and services to be paid for on the network, getting 24/7 access to healthcare beyond your immediate community, and reducing overall cost by eliminating redundancy in the system (a personal pet peeve of mine).

So for patients this means if you need a new heart valve and there is an awesome heart surgeon in Texas (true story, Dr. Lamellas is the best), but you live in Nicaragua, this system will help facilitate getting your health info up to Texas and paying for the operation all on the system. Now this is a little extreme, but you get the general idea. On a smaller scale it will allow people to get access to the care they need with much less hassle than there is today. A second opinion is only a video conference away!

For physicians this means if you are, for example, a fantastic therapist, (what WELL currently does in California) and you are trying to build a practice, you can draw patients from beyond your immediate community. Their records will be available to you immediately, payment is guaranteed, and if you do a good job, you can count on more patients in the future.

The purpose is to break the traditional system, decentralizing and streamlining it so the whole thing can be done on one platform with transparency. It will allow seamless integration for both the patient and practitioner. I think it sounds like a neat idea. You get the open access electronic medical record we need as practitioners and patients get access to healthcare they may not otherwise be able to get, all while reducing the overall cost.

Potential pitfalls include how this will integrate with existing technologic infrastructure and health insurance plans. The technology can be overcome, but it will be annoying as there are currently several huge EMRs in the US and many smaller ones that don't really communicate with each other right now. Building a platform that can draw from all of these sources will be difficult, but not impossible. I also see this as a way existing insurance companies, if they have a mind to, can pay for patients to receive the care they need, even in another country (which can be a huge headache), at a better overall price. This could also be a way for people to build up their own sort of personal insurance pool over their lifetime...who knows where exactly it will go.

WELL also has a philanthropic arm where they plan to donate healthcare services to the less fortunate, which is always a noble and noteworthy goal. I hope it can be used to do some real good in the world.

The Team:

I like seeing teams that are fleshed out and full of practical experience. WELL has 12 people listed on their website, several of whom have impressive backgrounds. They seem to have their business, medical, legal, and IT bases covered.

The Progress:

WELL is a platform that is already operational as a network of therapists in California. It's always nice to see a proven model that is working on expanding with the use of technology. Their ICO is currently underway and they have reached their soft cap of $3 million. And from personal experience, the healthcare IT market is very hot and the opportunity to invest in new, promising technology can be very profitable.

The Value:

The tokens are already on sale and the discount structure is as follows:

Where the money is to be made is, as usual, in the expansion of the platform. As more healthcare systems, physicians, and patients adopt it, the demand will rise and the currency will become more valuable. I think this is a cool opportunity for patients and healthcare systems to be on the cutting edge of advancing technology, rather than reacting to it.

People smarter than me:

Overall, there are not a ton of reviews out there on this venture. I hope this raises some awareness and maybe some more people smarter than me can look into it and render an opinion. My reservation with this ICO is the same as with all ICO's...they you are buying in to a company without getting an actual stake in it, like a stock. But this can be used for medical services in the future, something that we will all definitely be needing at some point.

I'm not a financial planner by any stretch of the imagination, so take this for what it's worth :)

I'm also not getting any funds from WELL for this information, nor do I hold a position in WELL at this time.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve these posts or if there are other health related topics you would like some info on. Thank you!

Past posts:
https://steemit.com/ico/@cbk/initial-coin-offering-ico-rentberry