UPDATE: Factom Admits Blockchain Healthcare Fraud Deletes Webpage Announcement

UPDATE: After discovering a Fraudulent Partnership in Healthcare and the use of Blockchain, Factom has pulled down the Webpage announcement created on August 23, 2015. The PR Web announcement still exists, and corrections were not made via retraction to Coinbuzz, Elena Faucets, Coin Telegraph, and Crypto News Day. If Blockchain is to gain trust in the companies that mislead about their “so called” achievements must make a global PR retraction, in the same manner that they advertised their bogus claims. The 404 “Oops, This Page Could Not Be Found!” and Investigative Report Appears below.

Peter Karahalios, COO, of Chicago area based healthcare technology company,HealthNautica confirmed that the press release announcing collaboration with Austin based Blockchain company, Factom was a “mistake.”

The April 23, 2015 Press Release announced one of the first ever implementations of Blockchain to secure Electronic Health Records via a partnership between Healthnautica and Factom. Blockchain is a technology that could provide enhanced security and privacy for patient records, and the April 2015 announcement would have been one of the first times that this technology was used to secure medical records in the US. Healthnautica provides electronic order entry software for hospitals and includes Advocate Health as one of its premier clients.

The April 2015 Press Release appears to be distributed through Factom and there is no reference to the release or alleged Factom partnership on Healthnautica’s website or its Twitter Feed. Healthnautica’s President, Shailesh Bhobe, is referenced in an article published by CoinBuzz:

“The Factom technology is a perfect fit for enhancing the audit trails and the secure nature of the healthcare records that HealthNautica manages for its users, …”

The deceptive press release is referenced over 1250 times on Google and was reported by Financial Technology News Organizations, including Crypto News Day, CoinBuzz, Coin Telegraph, and others. Computer Science Corporation, CIO Magazine, and Open Health News also referenced the misleading press release.

In October 2015, Kuala Innovations invested $400,000 into Factom. Kuala changed its name on October 29, 2015, and is currently called Fast Forward Innovations, Ltd. On October 14, 2015 Factom was featured in an article titled,“The Holy Trinity, Blockchain, Medical Records, and Wearable Tech.” A December 18, 2015 SEC Filing identifies Factom officers; Peter Kirby, Paul Snow, Xujun (Jack) Lu and others, involved in a Securities Offering. One week later, onChristmas Day, December 25, 2015 it was revealed that Factom released another misleading Press Release regarding a contract with the Government of Honduras and its use of Blockchain for tracking land titles.

It is certainly the case that Blockchain deserves a close look for potential use in healthcare and securing patient records and related transactions. As theTheranos debacle demonstrates, patients and consumers demand trust from digital health vendors. Peter Karahalios, COO of Healthnautica, should be applauded for correcting the record.

Edward Bukstel

@ebukstel