Hello everyone, I would like to start a discussion about Cardano platform in the medical (Dialysis to be specific) field. I work as a dialysis technician in “Davita,” one of the two dialysis companies that pretty much have a monopoly.
A little background on dialysis;
Dialysis is often referred as “borrowed time,” it is for people with chronic kidney failure. There are several causes of chronic kidney failure, the top being diabetes and hypertension, and the number of people with this condition is climbing up (they can’t build dialysis centers fast enough). In the days before dialysis people with this condition would simply die, and even after dialysis there were “life and death committees,” who would decide who gets to live and die, because there weren’t enough dialysis machines. Only once the U.S government passed a bill during the Nixon’s administration that covers all with this condition did this field change. Private dialysis companies sprung up because now there was a business model for it. Currently 1% of the U.S GDP goes to dialysis treatments…just for comparison, the entire public education system in the U.S takes up 1% of the GDP. Once a person is on dialysis, they have to remain on it for the rest of their life (that is what keeps them alive). Some get lucky with Kidney transplants, but those are few and rare. Dialysis is a huge community.
Let’s start a discussion on how the Cardano platform can be integrated into this field, make it more efficient. Share your ideas, medical records? Supply chains? dAPPS? Smart contracts, etcetera…
The most obvious application is putting medical records on the blockchain, but Cardano might be a little late to this party, there are already projects specialising in it, such as
But there can be one created specifically for Davita, using Cardano…since dialysis is really a world on its own. They actually do have their own system with a dedicated call center and help desk, its called “snappy” it’s very intricate and efficient, but I’m thinking blockchain tech based system will be the next level. The headquarters are incidentally in Denver, just like IOHK soon will be.
A system if is efficient doesn’t mean necessarily that is good system!
I will try to explain myself
Effeciency is applicable to any process even if the process is bad, you apply effeciency And is little bit more functional
Effective is key word as effective is effeciency applied to a perfect process!
This is the first question to ask yourself comparing what exist and what blockchain would solve!
Then you would have something called privacy! You need this information available not to everybody but just to those who needs it to give s service to the patient!
And that doesn’t exist for now! If I m updated well enough
HIPPA is pretty strict about those things
Yeah! Exactly… this is why I mentioned it!
I have read of instances of hacking into hospital databases and steeling pt. Records
Look you may use blockchain for pretty much everything yet it’s not advisable as the technology doesn’t support YET the requirement for some fields!
It just occurred to me that there should be lobbying in congress from CF to update medical record systems to blockchain based ones. One of the functions of Cardano Foundation is to lobby right, only government can make it mandatory and they probably will in time.
Yeah but won’t happens until blockchain technology could offer secrecy in Data handling and delivering
So not for general medical records, just those relating to dialysis?
Yep, so there are 2,580 outpatient dialysis centers located in the United States serving approximately 201,000 patients. The company also operated 253 outpatient dialysis centers located in 10 countries outside the United States, and that’s just Davita. Patient can move from facility to facility, they all use the same system. Patient can travel from state to state, and make sure when they get their all their record will already be send over. They can even go on a vacation, say In Bahamas or somewhere and rest east that everything will be set up for them once they get there. It’s the same for workers as well, you have your home facility but if you want to pick up an extra day here and there, you can help out other facilities. You’re already in the system, you use the same codes to punch in and out, same assess to the system across all Davita facilities.
…Or imagine what blockchain tech would do for non-for profit Dialysis centers
That suggests they already have a robust records system. OK so blockchain might be better, but so much better that they’re motivated to make such a massive change?
It’s all about dollars and cents at the end of the day right? How much money will it save them? Think about all the middleman they can cut out. Also keep in mind that U.S government is paying for all this with taxpayers money 
, so they might just force them with regulations…with proper lobbying of course.