See How Blockchain Can Change Healthcare

Cura Network
Cura Network
Published in
8 min readJan 17, 2019

There is an all-time increase in heart diseases, cancer, strokes, respiratory diseases and diabetes among urban dwellers. In 2017, 279 million people were diagnosed with diabetes. This number is expected to hit 473 million by 2045 (according to the International Diabetes Federation, IDF).

What is the cause of this?

Our lifestyle.

Besides this is the absence of preventive healthcare services. Facilities to promote early detection and prevention of these diseases are not available. Doctors do not have updated medical records of patients.

The average patient receives treatment from more than one medical centre. These medical centres have different records about the patient that are not unified. Therefore, no single source of truth on the patient’s medical history.

The problem with traditional healthcare system

There are over 200 thousand medical websites, and thousands of hospitals all over the world. These health centres hold different medical record on a patient who uses their services. This means over a thousand different record on a single patient (assuming the patient visit all of the hospitals).

What does this mean?

This means if a patient visits a hospital for the same complaints for which he had visited a different hospital before, all the tests and procedures carried out on him in the first hospital will be repeated.

Why is this so?

Because medical records are held in isolation by different health centres, doctors and health providers cannot easily request a patient’s medical record from another hospital. This is known as the lack of interoperability. Data cannot be shared easily and efficiently among different health institutions and specialists.

What trouble is this already causing?

This lack of interoperability of data has led to delay in the treatment of patients, and as a result death. Increase in cost of medical care due to repetition of similar procedures and increased fragmentation of patient’s data.

What has been done to fix this?

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, is a measure proposed to solve the lack of data interoperability. The EHR system however introduced more problems.

How effective is the EHR system?

The EHR system increased the cost of medical record keeping and accessing. This is due to extra investment in hardware, support staff (an EHR department to handle the data), security system for the data and software licensing. This has increased the cost of healthcare delivery.

On the patient’s side, the EHR is completely controlled by the health institutions. The patient cannot tell if his records are updated between healthcare providers. He has to carry out a manual coordination to ensure this.

Researchers are also affected by this. The absence of a single, reliable, source of truth for analysis of health statistics hampers research processes.

What we actually need to solve the problem

A single data centre. Where individual health records are stored and accessible by different healthcare providers and stakeholders with ease and speed.

This system will be accessible by all, secure with respect for the patient’s privacy. The patient will have complete control over his medical history. This system will be easy to update upon new medical procedures.

This data centre will not be in the control of any single healthcare provider. A fully decentralized data system.

The blockchain network is the solution.

How the blockchain network will solve this problem

In 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first blockchain network; the bitcoin blockchain. This led to the development of other blockchain networks for other use cases (that is, other applications).

The blockchain network has all the features of a decentralized data system that we need to solve this problem of interoperability. The blockchain network is decentralized. That is to say, data is not stored or controlled by one organization. Instead, data is stored and controlled by different computers connected to the network across the world. These characteristics of the network ensures security and universality of access.

A healthcare data system built on a blockchain network will provide a secure and unified data pool, where a patient’s data can be stored and accessed anywhere. Health specialists will have access to a patient’s health record on the consent of the patient. This record will be updated after every medical procedure.

This data can be retrieved by other healthcare providers that the patient visits (also on the permission of the patient). This will provide easy access to the patient’s record for more effective medical attention. Any new medical data on the patient can be added to the already existing data in the blockchain network and stored.

Any internet of medical things that the patients use will be connected to this network to update patients’ medical condition.

This will be the peak of interoperability. Putting the control of data in the hands of the patients. Making health record easily assessable by everyone.

Blockchain will help different parties in the healthcare system to securely share data.

We’re building this life-saving network at the Cura Network.

The Cura network is a blockchain platform, designed to solve all the current challenges of our healthcare system. The Cura Network will provide the final solution to the long-lasting problem of lack of interoperability, using the blockchain technology.

What is the Cura network?

The Cura network is a global decentralized health system that consists of patients, health specialists, health institutions, application developers and computers (internet of things devices) collaborating and sharing data with each other to promote, restore and maintain health.

The Cura network will improve the healthcare universe by making use of the blockchain technology to create a unified platform (data pool) that will power a plethora of health services.

What we believe

We believe that healthy people are essential for sustainable development. Easy, secure and fast access to health data is at the centre of achieving long lasting health. That is why we’re developing a system that guarantees interoperability of data, fast and secure access, privacy and data portability.

How the Cura network solves this lack of data interoperability

The Cura Network is a patient-centred blockchain network, built with all the core features of a blockchain network. Which are decentralized, secure, encrypted and easily accessible at any time.

Using this platform, health providers can store and access patients’ health records on a network with distributed storage. Patients’ data will be stored on nodes (computers) connected to the network. The nodes ensure the decentralization of the network. The security of the data from unauthorized access and control from one single health institution is achieved.

This gives complete control of health record to the patient. Only entities granted permission by the patient will have access to his medical records. This can be a doctor, a medical institution or the insurance company.

By using this platform, patients, healthcare providers and third party developers collaborate to build a unified pool of data that is secure, decentralized and accessible at any time.

How our platform works

The network is assessed using our mobile application. With the app, patients, healthcare providers and developers obtain a set of private and public keys alongside a unique global Cura Network ID (CNID). With this, data can be created and stored securely on our network. This data can only be accessed or modified by consent of the patient.

This request granting feature is programmed into our mobile application. The patient receives a request and then grants the request at will. This consent can also be written as a set of codes. This codes will execute automatically if/when a given set of conditions (called triggers) are met. This trigger can be the identification of the entity making the request as the patient’s doctor or insurance company. This is known as a smart contract.

How data will be generated and stored in the network

  • Healthcare providers collect information from the patient
  • Data is stored in existing database in the hospital
  • A hash is created from each source of data and redirected to the blockchain
  • Health stakeholders can query the blockchain to get access to the patient’s information
  • The patient decides who has access to his records.

After every medical session, data created on the patients will be organized and stored in the blockchain network. This will be on the consent of the patient and then published on a public ledger. This can only be done by healthcare providers that have been permitted by the patient.

Who are we building this platform for?

  • The patient
  • Healthcare providers,
  • Insurance companies,
  • Medical researchers and scientists, and
  • Developers.

We bring a host of benefits with our platform

  • For patients, there will be complete control and access (24/7) to medical records. Fast medical attention and consultation from doctors anywhere in the world. A guarantee of complete security and an opportunity to earn by volunteering in research.
  • For healthcare providers, this is a 100% guarantee of payment for remote healthcare consultation offered to patients (from a transparent blockchain system). A reliable and up-to-date medical history of patients. Real time health monitoring with connected internet of medical things. And easy collaboration between specialists.
  • Through our platform, researchers can collaborate to yield better results with the Cura Network’s data of patients. Accessed on the consent of the patient.
  • Third party app developers will have access to real-time health statistics. They will enjoy easy app monetization on our platform through subscriptions. As well as enjoy a safe and easy-to-integrate data layer for medical applications and IoT devices.

Cur will power the network

Cur is the cryptocurrency of the Cura Network. Specialists offering healthcare services to patients will be paid in Cur. Patients will be paid in Cur for engaging and volunteering in research. This digital currency will ensure transparency, irreversibility of payment, as well as a guarantee of payment for the specialist and service for the patient.

How Far Have We Gone?

We are rounding up our private sale February 2019. Main ICO will be launched in the 2nd quarter of 2019. Our platform and mobile client application will be launched in the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2019.

JOIN US

We are building the №1 solution to the world’s greatest problem in healthcare delivery. We would love to have you on board. Join us in redesigning the future of healthcare.

How do you become a part of this movement?

How do you learn more about what we’re doing and all the great things we have in stock?

How do you take part in our private sales and upcoming ICO?

How do you get free Cur by engaging in simple tasks?

Visit our official website www.curanetwork.co

While you’re at it, sign up for our newsletter to stay in front of all developments.

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Cura Network
Cura Network

Cura Network is a decentralized healthcare system that makes medical records easily accessible anywhere in the world Visit our website: www.curanetwork.co