MedCredits: a “Dapp” You Can Use In Under 5 minutes — Try it now!
Disclosure: No financial interest or holdings in MedCredits.
Note: I like to link articles that go deeper so please click on anything underlined to deepen your knowledge.
MedCredits is a decentralized telemedicine application (aka dApp for short). Basically this means you can send out a message to a doctor describing a medical issue, answer a few quick details, attach a picture, and hear back from a board certified dermatologist quickly! Many other specialties are planned in the future but dermatology is a great test case since it is based on visual diagnosis and pattern recognition.
Hippocrates, named after a very legit early (460BC) doctor, is the name of this new decentralized application, or ÐApp for short. Beta testing of the platform is going on now. I finally decided yesterday that I would set my fear of failure aside and set up an account with the goal of submitting my hypothetical medical question: a stye! (I am an oculoplastic surgery fellow so it just seems right.) Well I had a pretty open weekend and the intimidation factor has to be conquered some time! In general I am a fairly early adopter of tech, but like with many things in crypto, it is easy to put things off if they seem confusing. This was literally the opposite.
I downloaded the iPhone Cipher app and set up my wallet — a virtual spot to hold tokens like Venmo or Square. See the GIFs below of the Cipher set-up process. This involves going through a few simple screens and writing down some words that act as a backup password in case you lose your device — without it you’ll never get access nor will anyone else, which I recognize is a double-edged sword. Store those words in order in a safe, private place if you plan to store any real Bitcoin/Ethereum on there! Inside the Cipher app there is a browser like Chrome/Safari/Internet Explorer (see below).
Then you just go to a website set up by MedCredits within the Cipher App on your iPhone and it directs you to sign up for a MedCredits account a la Amazon or Facebook. If those company names remind you that you should be conscious of your privacy then you are appropriately paranoid. Medcredits is fully anonymous, one of the perks of a ÐApp, and the communication is encrypted and HIPAA compliant.
Once you open your MedCredits account it gives you a “private-key” (see below for computer screen example). This is the other secret code you want to keep track of because this super long code is a way to access any information you send to the doctor. A long key makes it impossible to hack. Typing in 50 characters to check that Perrier order on Amazon would be inconvenient right? Similarly, it would be arduous to log into a telemedicine app using a million letters so there is a password option, too. Cipher provides the option to save that password so you can auto-login when you check back for the doctor’s reply later.
And just like that you’ve hacked the mainframe.
Next we receive some free, play-money MedCredits (MEDT for Test).
“I am a 31 year old with a painful 1 week old stye.” Fill in the remaining boxes. Hit submit.
Easy!
A confirmation to send/spend 5 to 15 MedCredits popped up and I confirmed. Generally it is 10 MEDX for the consultation with some extra held if you request a second opinion. Then you just wait for a message to be returned to you from the doctor.
Full how-to on getting set up for MedCredits beta testing:
Lastly, a big thank you to John Todaro and the whole MedCredits team for answering any and all questions on their Telegram channel.