Healthcare is in many ways ripe for blockchain reform, but it would require a huge overhaul of numerous systems in order to achieve it. However, if a project is able to get a foot in the door of such transformation then it could be worth a fortune to company owners and token holders alike. We review three healthcare based ICOs that are hoping to disrupt the system and get heart rates, and prices, pumping.
Pharmeum
Pharmeum claims to be the world’s first blockchain-based medical prescription platform with AI health analytics. The aim of Pharmeum is to streamline the existing patient record and prescription medication data transfer systems, cutting costs, and time. The PHRM token will be the currency of the platform, with patients able to gain PHRM tokens by selling their data to researchers which they can then spend on diagnoses, medicine, and treatment.
The Pharmeum app will allow users to have their medical records with them at all times, as well as being able to buy medicine using their PHRM tokens. Pharmeum claims to be “currently working alongside the National Health Service (NHS) in England”. This is in reference to BluePatient, the first Pharmeum product, which they say has been “successfully trialled” within the NHS in 2018, although the only information on such a partnership comes from the Pharmeum promotional material, so it’s hard to immediately verify these claims.
Token and ICO details: 412.5 million of the 750 million total supply of PHRM tokens will be sold through the ICO, which is in pre-sale stage and begins this month on an as-yet unspecified date, with each token costing $0.03.
Considerations: Pharmeum claims to have a working product in BluePatient, but aside from the claimed NHS study they offer no other suggestion of who is using it, which is something that potential investors may wish to verify before they consider investing in the ICO.
Instant Access Medical
Instant Access Medical (iAM) is a platform that stores all aspects of your personal healthcare record in one unified place, keeping them comprehensive, up-to-date, and available on any device. The platform collects data from the various medical entities that hold records on you, as well as any records you entrust to your wearable or mobile health-tracking devices, and puts them all together in a single, decentralized and encrypted location. The platform will also allow you to access consultations via video and request prescriptions to be delivered to your nearest pharmacy.
Users who share their collated records with doctors, hospitals, care providers, and other healthcare participants are rewarded with iAM rewards tokens. These tokens can then be spent on storing records on the iAM blockchain, getting diagnoses from healthcare professionals, and settling payments for health services.
Token and ICO details: The iAM token sale ends Thursday, March 14 with each IAM token costing $0.40, with a 500 million token supply. They have already bypassed the softcap of $2 million.
Considerations: iAM has very grand plans, but its success depends on a great many healthcare services buying in, or patient records will still be fragmented and the user experience will be tainted. This will take some time to pull off, if they manage to at all, so investors should be willing to hold for the long term.
Medicohealth
Medicohealth takes a slightly different slant on improving healthcare with blockchain by offering remote diagnosis (telemedicine) with tokenized rewards. Their application seeks to create a “fully anonymous, safe, and efficient communication with [the] world’s leading healthcare specialists and provide [our] own tokenized and secure payment system.” The platform will allow healthcare professionals to match with patients on the platform and offer a remote diagnosis. The doctor will have prior access to the patient’s records on the Medicohealth blockchain, and the patient will have already seen the doctors speciality, prices and ratings prior to selection. The physician will then be paid in MHP tokens for their services.
Medicohealth claim to have an existing database of some 2.5 million physicians (2018 data), although telemedicine is a legally difficult area with different rules in different countries about its use, which is something that is stated in the whitepaper. This means that usage could be limited in certain parts of the world until legislation is passed. Medicohealth boasts “communication with the world’s leading healthcare professionals”. However, this is assuming that any of the world’s leading health professionals sign up for a telemedicine scheme that pays out in tokens.
The extent of the communication consists of, according to the whitepaper, “anonymous questions to physicians (fast physician comments)”, which boils down to a few typed responses in a messaging service, a far cry from the idea of a video or even an audio call with the physician.
Token and ICO details: The Medicohealth ICO is currently in private presale stage, with pricing details available upon request, although one MHP token will cost $0.08 at public sale. 65% of the 500 million tokens will be sold through the crowdsale, while the hardcap is set to a rather ambitious $23 million.
Considerations: Those considering investing in this ICO should, as always, read the whitepaper carefully and consider if a blockchain is really required for this project. Especially considering that all the information patients would usually need of a doctor (qualifications, prices, specialisms) is readily available online. They should also research the claim of 2.5 million healthcare professionals being registered on the platform before investing.
Who Gets a Clean Bill of Health?
So, there we have our three latest contenders for the blockchain-healthcare crown. What do you think of the projects and their offerings? Do any of them leap out to you as the ideal way to get healthcare to trim the fat, or are they all in need of major surgery to keep them alive? Let us know in the comments below.
