By Michael Scott

Health experts will generally agree that there are myriad issues facing healthcare today. At the center of this is patients’ inability to control their own health record and seamlessly share it with key stakeholders. In addition, the need exists for a way to incentivize healthy behavior in order to stem the global tide of chronic diseases.

Actively engaged in providing solutions to address these issues is the startup MintHealth, a decentralized health platform replete with a portable, secure and self-sovereign personal health record that employs blockchain technology.

Launched by a team of healthcare veterans, MintHealth’s patient-controlled health record will include vital laboratory, medication, medical imaging, vital signs (e.g., MRT and CT scans) and other critical health data. The platform gathers information from existing medical record systems as well as from the patients via the web, their mobile applications and connected devices.

Patients will control access to their information via smart contracts that are tethered to a blockchain and executed by the MintHealth application. Health practitioners, coaches, case managers, family and friends can then gain insight from the data via social modules baked into the MintHealth application. Ultimately, the goal is to utilize a community-based approach to boost awareness around chronic conditions and how they can be addressed.

In an exclusive interview with Nasdaq, Jerry Gross, MintHealth’s chief strategy officer, laid out the inherent challenges and opportunities with blockchain technology in addressing the pervasive issue of chronic health conditions. Here’s what he had to say:

Tell us a bit about the genesis of this project. How did this start?

The two co-founders are very successful physician entrepreneurs: One of them is Samir Damani, who founded the chronic care management company MD Revolution. The other founder is Vishal Verma, MD, who is the CEO of Nucleus Health, a very successful imaging technology company. They met and began to explore how they could leverage blockchain technology to address some of the chronic conditions they were seeing with patients.

That was a couple of years ago, right?

I think it was probably around January of 2017, around that time. They started to see that there was potential here to really develop value for the patient. One of the biggest problems in healthcare are the silos of information that are locked inside the electronic medical record (EMR). So, their initial reaction was that there is an opportunity here to [both] dissolve these silos and put the patients in control of their data.

Where did the efforts go from here?

Right from the get-go, Samir saw an opportunity with chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and so forth. They started brainstorming about it, and that led ultimately to a white paper that Samir and Vishal wrote.

And what was their premise?

That most of those diseases are preventable if people just do a couple of things around diet and exercise and staying consistent with whatever medications they are on. So, the thinking was, blockchain [technology] not only allows someone to get more control of their medical information, but the underlying infrastructure of blockchain [technology] has this incredible token incentive infrastructure. So, that is how the whole thing started.

How did you get involved with MintHealth?

I was at the Connected Health Conference in Boston around October of last year, [and] I heard Samir talk. After his presentation, I just ran up to him and hugged him. I said, “I can’t believe that someone is not thinking about this; how can I get involved?” So, that is how I got involved.

And your role?

I’m both the COO and the chief strategy officer. I am not a physician, but I have deep roots in the health industry ecosystem through manufacturers [like] Amgen and large healthcare enterprises like McKesson. I also have a background in blockchain [technology] and saw where it could truly transform this industry.

So how have things evolved since you arrived?

In terms of the infrastructure, they hadn’t been thinking about a comprehensive platform until my involvement. For me, MintHealth was more than just having an app with a wallet and tokens going through it. I said, “No, what we need to do is enable the entire industry here.” In other words, we need to bring all of that into an ecosystem that’s about tokenizing both third-party apps as well as reaching out to communities with at-risk populations. That’s how I got involved and the value contribution I started with.

There are a ton of blockchain projects out there trying to offer solutions to the healthcare industry. What is your assessment of this space?

All of the various blockchain projects, based on my research, are still trying to solve problems with solutions that have failed. What I mean by that is everyone is trying to create their own hub. They are saying, “Come to us, and we will displace the EMRs.” Or, “We will be the self-sovereign EMR of choice in the industry.” That is not our approach here at MintHealth. The average hospital has 15 EMRs in place, [and] they are all struggling with that environment. Our approach is to enable the EMRs and not displace them or disrupt them. I don’t know anybody who has that approach.

In terms of your strategic approach, what’s the biggest roadblock you’re facing at present?

I think that there are a couple of things. One is knowledge about this whole space — the blockchain space among those in the healthcare industry. There is confusion and so much misinterpretation about what it is and what it isn’t.

So what exactly are you hearing?

Things like: “I don’t want to ‘bitcoin’ my EMR.”

Honestly, I think the biggest challenge we face is that you can’t just go into an enterprise and replatform that enterprise to use blockchain [technology]. It does require some design thinking. It does require an understanding on the part of the organization of the problem they’re trying to solve and how they can reimagine their business.

What sort of emerging trends do you see on the horizon over the next 12 to 18 months, in terms of the intersection between blockchain technology and healthcare?

What you are going to see is blockchain [technology] take on a trajectory much like the early days of the internet. Not just in terms of computing, bandwidth and storage, but also things around security and privacy. So over the next 12 to 18 months you are going to see identity management, authentication, provider verification and data marketplaces start to establish themselves because there is going to be a lot of value from these.

Any final thoughts on this point?

You are also starting to see now, and will, over the next 12 to 18 months, see big development platforms like EOS, NEO and Lisk come online. They are going to provide the enabling environment to build out the distributed applications and so forth that provide major capabilities. Finally, over this time period I see a lot of the innovation taking place with infrastructure, development and digital commodities platforms. All of these developments will make for interesting times for sure.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Written by the Chief Technology Officer of MintHealth, Tyson McDowell

This is the first in a series of discussions on the technology behind MintHealth. This post sets the stage, and subsequent posts will dive into the technical details of each component within. Enjoy!

We understand that US Healthcare is a complex system with many players and silos. Each stakeholder has its own entrenched interest and agenda and there isn’t true transparency to the cause-and-effect relationship of individual behaviors to the spiraling health cost overall. Furthermore, the inclusion of insurance in the whole system reduces the direct incentive an individual has to truly care about his or her health today, which affects cost a year or more into the future.

In our view, the equation for moving to an improved, high-value healthcare system has four components. Action Incentives, Clinically-validated Results, Aggregated Data at the Patient Level, and Reliable User Engagement.

Action Incentives: An Incentive-based Model Using a Utility token [Vidamints (VIDA)]

The first component of the solution is to create a direct financial incentive to reward individuals for behaviors which benefit his or her health. These behaviors powered by a smart contract, plus provable improvements in health, correlate to the medium and long-term cost implications for those paying for their healthcare (such as insurance companies).

From the perspective of the healthcare payer, they need not be concerned with the concept of spending money on something that won’t work because unlike generalized population handling, the tokens are held in escrow and only earned by the patients when they complete an action known to connect to improved health, and when improved health is actually attained.

The assumption is that an improved quality of life for the patient provides a greater ability for healthcare to be more effective at lower cost.

Clinically-validated Results: Unlocking the Value of Healthful Actions

The second component is validating that the changed behavior(s) of a patient has led to improved outcomes through tangible results like blood pressure, weight, blood tests, urinalysis etc.

To accomplish this, we have designed our early token campaigns at patients suffering from one or more chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity.

Access to data streams are permissioned and measured via a token-incented “link to data” offered to patients. Connecting movement data (via Validic, FitBit, and others) or self-reporting a weigh-in results in earning tokens. Connecting to the patient’s health system’s portal to automatically link lab results and annual physical metrics are rewarded the same way.

Based upon the confirmation of healthful action per these data streams, MintHealth awards vidamints with the majority released to be redeemed once the clinically-validated results play through. In this way, a patient can earn many tokens, but a large portion will be in a “hold for clinically-validated results” state until clinically-validated results are delivered. This ensures a data-driven behavior modification ecosystem.

Aggregated Data at the Patient Level: The Self-Sovereign Personal Health Record

This tokenized Patient Health Records (PHR) provides data security and sharing through a personal cloud storage offered by a third party (such as Microsoft Azure). The private key to their data are held by the patient and data liquidity is enforced by permission (self-authorization).

In this way, patients can be confident that only they see their data and nobody else does. And when someone comes tries to access their data, they can see who it is, why they are trying to access it, and how much tokens they can earn for releasing specific data components to them. They can accept or reject the offer; their data is perfectly secure.

All of this is a perfect setup for a truly self-sovereign patient health record. A record that can serve the digital needs of patients but also the help patients contribute their data to health innovation by being incentivized to opt in. The patients themselves are active and are aware of the opportunities ahead.

In order to significantly improve health and health delivery, we must make patient self-sovereignty the cornerstone of a re-engineered system to improve care quality at lower costs. The key to accomplishing this transformation is an aggregation of valid, meaningful and valuable healthcare data with the patient at the patient’s perspective.

Reliable User Engagement: Driving Patient Action

What is all this worth if people don’t use it?

So many good solutions never make a difference due to low adoption and low retention driven by systems that are not easily engaged. Our approach is to gamify the interaction with the right message, for the right person, at the right moment.

Our system of multichannel, context-aware contact management is key to user adoption of healthy habits. Facebook messenger, in-app messaging, location-based alerts, user status knowledge such as “at home” or “traveling,” SMS, Alexa… the list goes on. Simple messages like “Earn more!” prompted by the complex-in-reality rules of the healthcare system we live in, reduced to an easy to understand value proposition, gives us the best chance to make real changes in people at scale.

The number of and types of things patients can do to be healthy that earn tokens will expand over time, allowing the outcomes associated with those actions to promote the most healthful protocols and feedback to the providers of those protocols for continuous improvement. This structure drives continuous improvement to the core of the spiraling health cost problem. Many solutions push a health agenda that is good but don’t attack the critical problem of financial sustainability related to healthful action.

Welcome to the proof-of-health revolution!

Join our telegram here

Participate in our Reg CF here

Follow us on twitter here

If you liked what you read, go ahead and “Clap” below so others will see it too (up to 50 claps allowed!)

The Path to Transforming Healthcare was originally published in JustStable on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Written by the Chief Technology Officer of MintHealth, Tyson McDowell

This is the first in a series of discussions on the technology behind MintHealth. This post sets the stage, and subsequent posts will dive into the technical details of each component within. Enjoy!

At MintHealth, we understand that US Healthcare is a complex machine with many players and silos. Each stakeholder has its own entrenched interests and agenda. There isn’t true transparency to the cause-and-effect relationship of individual behaviors to the spiraling health cost overall. Furthermore, the inclusion of insurance in the whole system reduces the direct incentive an individual has to truly care about his or her behavior today, which affects cost a year or more into the future.

In our view, the equation for moving to an improved, high-value healthcare system has four components. Action Incentives, Clinically-validated Results, Aggregated Data at the Patient Level, and Reliable User Engagement.

Action Incentives: An Incentive-based Model Using Vidamints (VIDA)

The first component of the MintHealth solution is a direct financial incentive to the individual for behaviors which benefit his or her health. These behaviors, plus provable improvements in health, correlate to the medium and long-term cost implications for those paying for their healthcare (such as insurance companies).

That’s a mouthful, but that’s the beauty of a token powered by a smart contract: the complex relationship between the patient’s action and the insurance costs need not be understood by the patient. All the patient needs to know is healthful actions yield VIDA tokens. And tokens can be redeemed for a myriad of valuable stuff!

From the perspective of the healthcare payer, they need not be concerned with the concept of spending money on something that won’t work because unlike generalized population handling, the tokens are only earned by the patients when they complete an action known to connect to improved health, and when improved health is actually attained.

The happy byproduct is an improved quality of life for the patient and a greater ability for healthcare to be more effective at lower cost. All with the simple story of an incentive model backed by a lot of logic.

Clinically-validated Results: Unlocking the Value of Healthful Actions

The second component is validating the changed behaviors of a patient have led to improved outcomes. This substantiation, that a patient has achieved a clinically-validated healthful result, could be something like improved bloodwork.

To accomplish this, we look to the early campaigns our tokens are likely to be targeted at: patients with one or more chronic conditions. Some big needles to move in these populations are movement and diet related, which are reflected in biometrics gleaned from bloodwork and other clinically-administered tests.

MintHealth will gain access to the data streams used to measure these things via token-incented “link to data” offers to patients. Connecting movement data (via Validic, FitBit, and others) or self-reporting a weigh-in results in tokens. Connecting to the patient’s health system’s portal to automatically link lab results and annual physical metrics are rewarded the same way.

Based upon the confirmation of healthful action per these data streams, MintHealth awards vidamints with the majority released to be redeemed once the clinically-validated results play through. In this way, a patient can earn many tokens, but a large portion will be in a “hold for clinically-validated results” state until clinically-validated results are delivered.

The beneficial consequence of this setup is data will be aggregated with the patient more than with other solutions. Why? We are paying them to do it and those paying for that have much to win by the behaviors proven by that data.

Aggregated Data at the Patient Level: The Self-Sovereign Personal Health Record

There are so many Patient Health Records lying on the cutting-room floor because while nice technology, there was little to no reason for a patient, or a healthcare entity to adopt them. Now there is.

Enter the third component: data security and sharing. This is one of the best applications for blockchain technology! At MintHealth, patients own their data, literally. It goes in their own personal cloud storage offered by third parties such as Microsoft Azure. The keys to their data are held by them and a data liquidity blockchain is enforcing the requirement for user authorization to even view that data.

In this way, patients can be confident that they see their data and nobody else does. And when someone comes knocking at the door of their data, patients see who it is, why they are knocking, and how much token the patients can earn for releasing specific data components to them. They can accept or reject the offer; their data is perfectly secure.

All of this is a perfect setup for a truly self-sovereign patient health record. A record that can serve the digital needs of the data-hungry machine learning health innovation of the future which users will be comfortable and incentivized to opt into. But it all only works if the patients themselves do the actions and are aware of the opportunities.

In order to significantly improve health and health delivery, we must make patient self-sovereignty the cornerstone of a re-engineered system to improve care quality at lower costs. The key to accomplishing this transformation is an aggregation of valid, meaningful and valuable healthcare data with the patient at the patient’s perspective.

Reliable User Engagement: Driving Patient Action

What is all this worth if people don’t use it? So many good solutions never make a difference thanks to low adoption and low retention driven by systems that are not easily engaged. MintHealth’s approach is to meet the eyeballs where they are and in context. We think of this as outbound messaging with the right message, for the right person, at the right moment.

Our system of multichannel, context-aware contact management is key to user adoption of great habits. Facebook messenger, in-app messaging, location-based alerts, user status knowledge such as “at home” or “traveling,” SMS, Alexa… the list goes on. Simple messages like “Earn more!” prompted by the complex-in-reality rules of the healthcare system we live in, reduced to an easy to understand value proposition, gives us the best chance to make real changes in people at scale.

The number of and types of things patients can do to be healthy that earn tokens will expand over time, allowing the outcomes associated with those actions to promote the most healthful protocols and feedback to the providers of those protocols for continuous improvement. This structure drives continuous improvement to the core of the spiraling health cost problem. Many solutions push a health agenda that is good but don’t attack the critical problem of financial sustainability related to healthful action.

Welcome to the proof-of-health revolution!

Join our telegram here

Participate in our Reg CF here

Follow us on twitter here

In case you missed it, we launched our regulation Crowdfunding (“Reg CF”) offering last week via the StartEngine platform. Not familiar? A Reg CF allows startups to raise up to $1 million annually from small-dollar investors through a web-based funding platform.

This type of raise is not new. In fact, equity crowdfunding is turning 2 years old on May 16th. Since 2016, hundreds of companies have filed offering documents with the SEC to fundraise on securities-based crowdfunding platforms.

Wait, didn’t MintHealth just announce a Reg D 506(c) offering? Why, yes, we did. However, a Reg D raise is only open to accredited investors and we don’t want to limit ourselves to the 1% of the uber wealthy. With a CF, we are empowering as many people as possible to fairly participate while ensuring compliance, transparency, and well-defined value to our stakeholders.

Last Friday, we pitched our Security token offering to 1000+ attendees (one of the biggest ICO events Los Angeles has ever seen) at StartEngine ICO 2.0 Summit. MintHealth CEO Dr. Samir Damani gave a compelling overview of the company and why our model was essential in the new Healthcare Blockchain landscape. A common theme throughout the program was the importance of creating offerings that are SEC compliant, so they have the longevity and ability to survive the evolving-regulatory environment. Our novel, dual-token structure was well received for this reason, and created excitement around security tokens being the next frontier. The crowd was also excited about our patient engagement model and attendees related their own experiences to the problems we’re solving.

Our company’s vision is to be Proof of Health on the Blockchain by creating an incentivized approach that aligns healthcare stakeholders around the shared goal of patient empowerment and improved clinical outcomes, at lower costs. Whether you are a healthcare payer or provider, a medical device company or a consumer in our community: everyone will be rewarded through our dual-token structure.

I caught up with MintHealth’s CSO Jerry Gross for his perspective on our Online Public Offering (OPO).

Why is MintHealth holding a Reg CF?

Regulation Crowdfunding is an exciting approach for MintHealth to offer non-accredited investors the opportunity to support the growth of a visionary product, as well as participate in transforming Healthcare. Created from Title III of President Obama’s 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Regulation CF provides access to alternative investments such as MintHealth through online equity crowdfunding.

Why is MintHealth working with StartEngine? Why is the platform/approach interesting?

We partnered with StartEngine in this SEC-compliant Reg CF Title III funding round because it’s one of the top platforms. StartEngine helps startups issue securities through crowdfunding and ICOs, utilizing exemptions from registration under the Securities Act. To date, StartEngine has launched more than 150 capital raises. Companies can sell securities and investors can trade them all on one platform.

What will the CF money be used for?

We see crowdfunding as a viable method to raise funds in order to expand our business operations. MintHealth is focused on launching pilot programs with our strategic partners in 2018. We anticipate the majority of funds raised will be devoted to Platform Engineering and Integration of core technologies from our Foundational Partners.

Why is MintHealth also pursuing a Reg D?

MintHealth is pursuing a Reg D offering because it allows us to execute rapidly while avoiding the typical costs associated with a public offering.

Go to https://www.startengine.com/minthealth to find out more.

This blog post does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Clickhere to view the full MintHealth disclaimer, which holds true for this post.

We’re thrilled that Tyson McDowell has joined MintHealth as CTO to lead our technology and development teams. Check out the announcement here. We sat down with Tyson to hear why he’s so excited about blockchain, and after almost two decades in the healthcare industry, why he believes MintHealth is on the cusp of remarkable changes.

What about your experience makes you the best person for this position?

Most of my experience, as both a CTO and a CEO, has been working directly to optimize processes within the US healthcare system. And as technology has evolved, I’ve helped drive transformation in the industry all the way from data integration to machine learning applications that help maximize staffing and care. I watched healthcare shift from fee-for-service independent providers to large integrated population health management organizations, and watched tech transform from the basic HTML web applications to fully distributed, intelligent, highly persuasive human/technology partnership solutions. This experience has brought me to today and my belief that the greatest application of technology is to use it to drive human behaviors. If we can use technology to drive positive behaviors, that will have the greatest impact on the health system yet. I’ve built and operated almost all of the necessary pieces for such a system at some point in my career, and sold to and served almost every stakeholder in this value chain, so I am lucky to have my passion aligned with my experience and access to market.

What do you find especially interesting about MintHealth?

Simply put, their approach as I see it has the potential to address an issue that the industry has been struggling with for decades. The healthcare cost problem is a complex issue. There is ever-changing knowledge about what works to move the needle on healthcare cost and life quality. The individual is very disconnected from these processes and decisions, so while good intentions can be had by a person, they are still likely to do actions and consume things that at best, aren’t the most valuable thing they could be doing, and at worst, actually make matters worse. Thanks to Minthealth’s concept of a currency that is immutably tied to real actions and clinically-validated outcomes, the user experience can be as simple as “follow-the-yellow-brick-road.” So Minthealth’s reward token, Vidamints, can sate the human need for immediate gratification, but also the human need for long term gratification as the coin pays out for ultimate result-attainment. It’s easy to explain to users, and the coin is implicitly “healthy” for that, specific person. I’m excited because I actually can visualize healthcare consumers (and that’s really all of us) en-masse will follow the path the coin lays out, and I know our team will ensure that each coin is aligned with something that will actually move the needles of health cost and life quality. It’s our passion, and therefore we will be tenacious at making good on this promise.

Why are you excited to join?

The team, and the problem they’re solving. As I said, I’ve been around a lot of blocks in my time, in tech, healthcare, and elsewhere. This is a many-dimensional problem that requires knowledge of truth in every one, and to work with a team that has such strong knowledge yet enjoy working together is not an opportunity I wanted to miss. This team’s depth in healthcare, tech, crypto, legal, business strategy, shareholder value optimization (which is now token-holder value optimization) is second to none, and we fundamentally enjoy each-other. If a team likes running together, they are certain to last, and therefore succeed, and therefore win.

Why do you think MintHealth is uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on chronic disease prevention and management?

Our ability to align patients, even unknowingly, with their most critical risk factors according to the entities who pay for their health, is our core differentiation, and what will ensure our success. Healthcare experts know what an individual should do to move the needle, but individuals rarely do those things. It’s not a lack of knowledge of what to do, it’s a lack of ability to drive the person to do them, consistently, throughout their daily life. Our token, and experience in getting the right message to the right person at the right moment, gives us the best chance of anyone to make transformational traction with individuals in measurably reducing the cost of the whole. That, coupled with our deep integration with real, clinically validated healthcare data that health institutions trust, means our data will be highly effective at driving the next generation of knowledge on disease prevention and management.

What are your thoughts about the blockchain and a token incentive approach?

Blockchain can replace trust. Maybe that sounds skeptical but healthcare institutions and consumers don’t really trust each other when it comes to Patient Health Data, and as a result, very little data gets to come together so that meaningful machine, or even human analysis can be done. This has been a stumbling block for progress for a long time. The more data aggregates at the individual level, the smarter our system is at knowing that exact next thing at that exact right time to drive the individual to do. And with a token, that user doesn’t need to understand the complex reasons about why that token is available to them just then, and for just that, and why it is valued as it is at that moment. They need only know that they can do x and will get y token. The user experience is simple, and the token embodies all of the knowledge we have gained, and will continue to gain, about connecting that behavior to these very big and complex results of health cost and life quality.

In case you missed it, we launched our regulation Crowdfunding (“Reg CF”) offering last week via the StartEngine platform. Not familiar? A Reg CF allows startups to raise up to $1 million annually from small-dollar investors through a web-based funding platform.

This type of raise is not new. In fact, equity crowdfunding is turning 2 years old on May 16th. Since 2016, hundreds of companies have filed offering documents with the SEC to fundraise on securities-based crowdfunding platforms.

Wait, didn’t MintHealth just announce a Reg D 506(c) offering? Why, yes, we did. However, a Reg D raise is only open to accredited investors and we don’t want to limit ourselves to the 1% of the uber wealthy. With a CF, we are empowering as many people as possible to fairly participate while ensuring compliance, transparency, and well-defined value to our stakeholders.

Last Friday, we pitched our Security token offering to 1000+ attendees (one of the biggest ICO events Los Angeles has ever seen) at StartEngine ICO 2.0 Summit. MintHealth CEO Dr. Samir Damani gave a compelling overview of the company and why our model was essential in the new Healthcare Blockchain landscape. A common theme throughout the program was the importance of creating offerings that are SEC compliant, so they have the longevity and ability to survive the evolving-regulatory environment. Our novel, dual-token structure was well received for this reason, and created excitement around security tokens being the next frontier. The crowd was also excited about our patient engagement model and attendees related their own experiences to the problems we’re solving.

Our company’s vision is to be Proof of Health on the Blockchain by creating an incentivized approach that aligns healthcare stakeholders around the shared goal of patient empowerment and improved clinical outcomes, at lower costs. Whether you are a healthcare payer or provider, a medical device company or a consumer in our community: everyone will be rewarded through our dual-token structure.

I caught up with MintHealth’s CSO Jerry Gross for his perspective on our Online Public Offering (OPO).

Why is MintHealth holding a Reg CF?

Regulation Crowdfunding is an exciting approach for MintHealth to offer non-accredited investors the opportunity to support the growth of a visionary product, as well as participate in transforming Healthcare. Created from Title III of President Obama’s 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Regulation CF provides access to alternative investments such as MintHealth through online equity crowdfunding.

Why is MintHealth working with StartEngine? Why is the platform/approach interesting?

We partnered with StartEngine in this SEC-compliant Reg CF Title III funding round because it’s one of the top platforms. StartEngine helps startups issue securities through crowdfunding and ICOs, utilizing exemptions from registration under the Securities Act. To date, StartEngine has launched more than 150 capital raises. Companies can sell securities and investors can trade them all on one platform.

What will the CF money be used for?

We see crowdfunding as a viable method to raise funds in order to expand our business operations. MintHealth is focused on launching pilot programs with our strategic partners in 2018. We anticipate the majority of funds raised will be devoted to Platform Engineering and Integration of core technologies from our Foundational Partners.

Why is MintHealth also pursuing a Reg D?

MintHealth is pursuing a Reg D offering because it allows us to execute rapidly while avoiding the typical costs associated with a public offering.

Go to https://www.startengine.com/minthealth to find out more.

This blog post does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Click here to view the full MintHealth disclaimer, which holds true for this post.

We’re thrilled that Tyson McDowell has joined MintHealth as CTO to lead our technology and development teams. Check out the announcement here. We sat down with Tyson to hear why he’s so excited about blockchain, and after almost two decades in the healthcare industry, why he believes MintHealth is on the cusp of remarkable changes.

What about your experience makes you the best person for this position?

Most of my experience, as both a CTO and a CEO, has been working directly to optimize processes within the US healthcare system. And as technology has evolved, I’ve helped drive transformation in the industry all the way from data integration to machine learning applications that help maximize staffing and care. I watched healthcare shift from fee-for-service independent providers to large integrated population health management organizations, and watched tech transform from the basic HTML web applications to fully distributed, intelligent, highly persuasive human/technology partnership solutions. This experience has brought me to today and my belief that the greatest application of technology is to use it to drive human behaviors. If we can use technology to drive positive behaviors, that will have the greatest impact on the health system yet. I’ve built and operated almost all of the necessary pieces for such a system at some point in my career, and sold to and served almost every stakeholder in this value chain, so I am lucky to have my passion aligned with my experience and access to market.

What do you find especially interesting about MintHealth?

Simply put, their approach as I see it has the potential to address an issue that the industry has been struggling with for decades. The healthcare cost problem is a complex issue. There is ever-changing knowledge about what works to move the needle on healthcare cost and life quality. The individual is very disconnected from these processes and decisions, so while good intentions can be had by a person, they are still likely to do actions and consume things that at best, aren’t the most valuable thing they could be doing, and at worst, actually make matters worse. Thanks to Minthealth’s concept of a currency that is immutably tied to real actions and clinically-validated outcomes, the user experience can be as simple as “follow-the-yellow-brick-road.” So Minthealth’s reward token, Vidamints, can sate the human need for immediate gratification, but also the human need for long term gratification as the coin pays out for ultimate result-attainment. It’s easy to explain to users, and the coin is implicitly “healthy” for that, specific person. I’m excited because I actually can visualize healthcare consumers (and that’s really all of us) en-masse will follow the path the coin lays out, and I know our team will ensure that each coin is aligned with something that will actually move the needles of health cost and life quality. It’s our passion, and therefore we will be tenacious at making good on this promise.

Why are you excited to join?

The team, and the problem they’re solving. As I said, I’ve been around a lot of blocks in my time, in tech, healthcare, and elsewhere. This is a many-dimensional problem that requires knowledge of truth in every one, and to work with a team that has such strong knowledge yet enjoy working together is not an opportunity I wanted to miss. This team’s depth in healthcare, tech, crypto, legal, business strategy, shareholder value optimization (which is now token-holder value optimization) is second to none, and we fundamentally enjoy each-other. If a team likes running together, they are certain to last, and therefore succeed, and therefore win.

Why do you think MintHealth is uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on chronic disease prevention and management?

Our ability to align patients, even unknowingly, with their most critical risk factors according to the entities who pay for their health, is our core differentiation, and what will ensure our success. Healthcare experts know what an individual should do to move the needle, but individuals rarely do those things. It’s not a lack of knowledge of what to do, it’s a lack of ability to drive the person to do them, consistently, throughout their daily life. Our token, and experience in getting the right message to the right person at the right moment, gives us the best chance of anyone to make transformational traction with individuals in measurably reducing the cost of the whole. That, coupled with our deep integration with real, clinically validated healthcare data that health institutions trust, means our data will be highly effective at driving the next generation of knowledge on disease prevention and management.

What are your thoughts about the blockchain and a token incentive approach?

Blockchain can replace trust. Maybe that sounds skeptical but healthcare institutions and consumers don’t really trust each other when it comes to Patient Health Data, and as a result, very little data gets to come together so that meaningful machine, or even human analysis can be done. This has been a stumbling block for progress for a long time. The more data aggregates at the individual level, the smarter our system is at knowing that exact next thing at that exact right time to drive the individual to do. And with a token, that user doesn’t need to understand the complex reasons about why that token is available to them just then, and for just that, and why it is valued as it is at that moment. They need only know that they can do x and will get y token. The user experience is simple, and the token embodies all of the knowledge we have gained, and will continue to gain, about connecting that behavior to these very big and complex results of health cost and life quality.

Written by MintHealth CEO Samir Damani and Chief Strategy Officer Jerry Gross

The Emergence of Crypto-Securities

In 2017,[1] ICOs took the world by storm[2]. These ICOs have been predominantly tokens with utilitarian value and have raised over $4 Billion with an estimated market potential of $524 Billion[3]. In the process, they have disrupted the entrenched Venture Capital industry. However, in just one short year, we have seen the sun-setting of the ICO as we came to know them.

We are now experiencing the dawn of new era for funding Blockchain startups via a more stable, regulated vehicle known as the Security Token. This new vehicle is already attracting the kind of institutional capital required for the transformational change that Blockchain companies today are poised to deliver. While the security token sets a higher bar for both companies and investors seeking to invest in our technology future, it also mitigates the speculative mania and get rich quick “pump and dump” schemes that have hurt industry growth over the short term.

Herein, we outline a novel dual token structure where the utilitarian aspects of a token can be maintained to drive novel Blockchain-based business models, with security token holders benefitting from long term dividends of utility token sales, ownership in a company’s technology, and the liquidity offered by the security token exchanges set to go live later this year. Additionally, we describe in further detail the rationale behind the dual token structure, and illustrate a use case of such a structure with MintHealth — a decentralized healthcare platform that aligns stakeholders around patient empowerment for the purpose of combating the global epidemics in chronic disease and its associated skyrocketing costs.

ICOs As We Knew Them

As Crypto-Currencies[4] became commoditized last year through broader adoption[5], the rise of Crypto-Commodities[6] and Crypto-Utilities[7] were used to crowdfund protocols, networks, and services. Although it may not appear to be the case, the emergence of Blockchain with its CryptoAsset “killer apps” are following a predictable path of evolution along the Technology Hype Cycle[8] leading to the inevitable dominance of Crypto-Securities — a more stable investment and trading vehicle for companies trying to transform large entrenched industries.

Technology driven disruptions always emerge through a triggering event [9]. Although it may never be confirmed, the 2008 Financial Crisis appears to have been the trigger event for Bitcoin through the publishing of Satoshi’s peer-to-peer trustless concept in his/her/their whitepaper, which later a prototype, the Genesis Block was created. Just as when the Internet was triggered in the 1970’s, as news of Bitcoin emerged and infrastructure was built to support it, we entered a period of “inflated expectations” where early adopters, such as centralized exchanges, implemented fragile and unregulated trading platforms, both successfully and in some cases, with disastrous results due to large scale thefts and scams.

These emerging markets also experienced unprecedented wealth creation (and depletion), feverish speculation, dramatic volatility, market manipulation, unpredictable access and liquidity which caught the attention of National Governments, Taxing Authorities, Regulators and Institutional Investors. While there are compelling and regulatory compliant use cases for Utility tokens when their focus is solely on their use and not as a tradeable asset, ICO’s and unregulated centralized trading platforms in their current form have Investors disillusioned and wary.

A New Asset Class is Born

These combinations of “learnings” are the primary triggers for the emergence of Crypto-Securities. Crypto-Securities, also known as security tokens, are designed to overcome current challenges by tokenizing securities tradeable on the Blockchain, where the main use-case, is the anticipation of future profits in the form of dividends, revenue share and/or price appreciation. Security tokens that are regulatory compliant are cheaper and more efficient than conducting an ICO using utility tokens[10]. The underlying superhighways for trading security tokens has been underway for some time now by a number of visionary companies that saw this new trend emerging. Some notable companies include tZERO, Bancor, Polymath, Templum, among many others.

The Best of Both Tokens

Industry analysts and leaders predict that 25% ($20 Trillion) of the existing global equity market of $80 Trillion will be security tokens in the next 3 to 5 years, driven primarily by the massive influx of institutional capital[11]. At MintHealth we are leveraging the benefits that are inherent in both types of tokens by creating a two-token structure, whereby the tokens will be linked in a way that enables stakeholders to participate in the growth of the MintHealth Blockchain ecosystem, while capitalizing on the projected growth and regulatory compliant nature of security tokens.

MintHealth Vidamints™ (VIDA)[12] will operate as the rewards and incentive system on the MintHealth platform where Patients will earn VIDA as a reward for completing healthy activities. Patients will then be able to redeem VIDA for rewards in a similar fashion to frequent flier miles or other loyalty program point systems. In this case, the purchaser of the Vidamints will be insurance companies, corporate wellness programs, and any other entity that takes on the financial risk in caring for patients with diseases like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, among many other preventable chronic conditions. The VIDA token will not be used for capital raising. It will be a loyalty/utility token that is sold at a fixed price and will be tracked and transparent via the Blockchain.

MintHealth Tokens (MHST)[13] will be a security token offered through a Regulation D private sale process. MintHealth is also exploring opportunities to offer MHST through regulatory compliant sale(s) via the JOBS Act exemptions. The MHST token will entitle holders to i) a 10% royalty percentage of revenues generated through the sale of VIDA by MintHealth and ii) equity ownership in MintHealth. This structure provides a unique balance of participation in ecosystem growth and an equity ownership stake in MintHealth as a company.

Given the regulatory, government, tax, and other market implications covered here, we believe a dual token structure will provide the financial support for long term visions of transformation in a safe and compliant manner for all parties involved.

Most importantly, we are insulating the purchaser of goods and services and business models enabled by the utility token from the mania and volatility that has been rampant due to speculators and short term investors.

To learn more about MintHealth and how we are transforming Healthcare https://www.minthealth.io/

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[1] Definition: CryptoAssets are the native asset of Blockchain. Currently they include Crypto-Currencies, Crypto-Commodities, Crypto-Utilities and Crypto-Securities.

[2] Definition: Initial Coin Offering.

[3] Source: McKinsey Consulting, 2018- Total illiquid VC capital under management.

[4] Source: Burniske & Tatar, CryptoAssets, 2018- Crypto-Currencies defined as a means of exchange, store of value and a unit of account.

[5] Note: CoinMarketCap: Cryptocurrency market capitalization in 2017 had a range of $50B to $795M, https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/

[6] Source: Burniske & Tatar, CryptoAssets, 2018- Crypto-Commodities defined as a raw digital material or building block (e.g. compute power, storage capacity and network bandwidth) that serve as inputs into finished digital products and services.

[7] Definition: Crypto-Utilities defined as “finished” digital products and services that are designed as enablers not as investments (e.g. Media, Social, Marketplaces, Exchanges, E-Commerce.

[8] Source: Gartner Group https://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp

[9] Source: Gartner Group Research & Consulting, 2018.

[10] Source: ICO Alert- https://blog.icoalert.com/why-security-token-offerings-could-be-the-next-big-crypto-megatrend-3072d544a796

[11] Source: Cryptovest, https://cryptovest.com/news/are-security-tokens-key-to-tapping-a-multi-trillion-dollar-industry/

[12] Source: MintHealth Token structure- https://www.minthealth.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Team-and-Token.pdf

[13] Source: MintHealth Token structure- https://www.minthealth.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Team-and-Token.pdf

A Dual Token Structure of Utility and Security Tokens was originally published in JustStable on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

MintHealth CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Samir Damani, was a recent guest on Conversations on Health Care, with co-hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter, interview innovators in the delivery of care from around the globe. Conversations on Health Care is a national radio show that highlights reform and innovation in the healthcare system

In this episode, Dr. Damani discusses why blockchain technology can solve the top challenges facing our healthcare system right now — EHR interoperability and patient empowerment. There are many great takeaways and insights from the interview, but here are our top four.

Listen to the full interview here.

On how blockchain overcomes the issue of interoperability of records:

Data silos that exist today present problems across the healthcare spectrum — they impede physician’s ability to deliver personalized care, can cause significant delays in treatment and access to critical information and cost the healthcare system greatly in time and money to do the inefficiencies they create. You wouldn’t imagine that patients actually own this data because of the arduous process of going through red tape administrative bottlenecks just to access it.

Blockchain will allow for all different sources of data — personal health records and data from health apps, wearables, implants, imaging, etc. to be secured in the cloud, written into the blockchain and tied to a unique identifier that can then be accessed by anyone that the patient deems appropriate. To move away from our current system’s focus on treating chronic conditions and move into value based care, we have to give ownership of the data back to the patient. MintHealth allows patients to self-govern their personal health record.

On incentivizing healthy behavior through a rewards system and the MintHealth app:

By incentivizing patients, and making it fun with gamification technology, we can magnify the health benefits far beyond what we get today with in person doctor visits. Self-monitoring, self-tracking, self-awareness combined with human interaction and a clinical tool that sorts data in a way that allows us to engage patients on a very personalized level. The government has done a great job of incentivizing providers for non-face-to-face care through these new codes, like chronic care management, behavioral health codes, but they are lacking the incentive for the patient.

MintHealth is leveraging existing technology from MD Revolution (patient engagement) and Nucleus Health. Nucleus Health built a platform to get medical imaging data from the cloud and render and stream it instantaneously to an iPad or an iPhone, which has been a huge challenge because of the size of these images.

We thought — what if we could put not just medical imaging in the cloud, but patient data in the cloud, then layer in existing technology and form a patient engagement model that is tied together by a token called a Vidamint. This is a powerful model not only for storage and in creating a self-sovereign record for the patient, but for creating a model to drive down the cost of healthcare. MintHealth will deploy to commercial insurance companies, which will use tokens to incentivize positive behaviors amongst patients with chronic conditions.

On the potential for this as a public utility versus siloed somewhat into individual insurance entities:

The chronic pain management code was paying doctors 20 minutes for non-face-to-face care management back in 2015, which was the first code ever of its kind to reimburse for care delivered remotely. It was a CMS initiative and was not an insurance-sponsored initiative.

At MD Revolution, we were able to do a sophisticated case study in a Mississippi population of 3500 patients and showed $3.5 million in actual reduction inpatient hospital plans compared to that of approximately $800,000 that they spent during the eight-month period on the program.

We’ve seen an intense amount of interest for anything that is going to get patients to engage, and if you look at the recent MACRA legislation, which came out in 2015, it was bipartisan. You can see that now MIPS, which is the Merit Based Incentive Payment System, is a system by which anybody who is taking care of Medicare patients, you get penalized if you don’t have certain metrics and practice improvements. Part of those metrics are engaging patients for preventive care and encouraging them to have healthier behaviors. I definitely think this would be a platform that the government, not only the U.S., but other countries that are suffering from chronic disease, would want to use.

On predictive medicine and the ability to harness knowledge:

I started MD Revolution around patient engagement with the idea that bringing data together in one place would allow machine learning to do the work and reach the promise that we’ve been pushing for so long- to improve outcomes, and reduce chronic conditions, while also reducing costs. We haven’t reached this yet because the data is so scattered. Now, with MintHealth, we have the opportunity for personal cloud storage, protected by the blockchain, for medical imaging, clinical behavioral information, and EHR all in one place that patients can control and decide with whom they share it. In addition to this, MintHealth has a unique mechanism where we will allow patients to vote on the way they use the data.

If pharma wants to know all the diabetics who are on a certain drug and what their response is then, patients can now volunteer to share that data using the MintHealth application. Research and academic institutions, pharma, med device manufacturers, genetic companies would be very interested.

Another problem with siloed data today is that the data that researchers and others do have access to is shallow. What we need to really innovate is deep and broad data. You can no longer, in the name of security, say ‘we can’t give you your data’ and that’s the beauty of the blockchain. The atmosphere is immutable, and it’s open source so you can see everyone that has accessed anything ever. The ability to gather the data allows for machine learning to reach its full potential.

By Samir Damani, Founder and CEO, Minthealth

*This article originally appeared on the Connected Health Conference blog (http://www.pchalliance.org/news/mint-health-how-blockchain-and-incentives-will-improve-patient-behaviors-and-clinical-outcomes)

In my last article, I introduced the topic of blockchain and healthcare, and its potential for bringing much needed data liquidity to healthcare. I wrote it prior to speaking at the recent Connected Health Conference in Boston.

At the meeting, I introduced our company, MintHealth, and how we’ll be using blockchain, and our native token incentive — Vidamints, which incentivizes proactive patient behaviors, to improve population health outcomes and lower costs for insurance carriers. The epidemic rise in the prevalence of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity and the costs associated in caring for patients with these conditions is a threat to the sustainability of all government and non-government payers of healthcare.

I spoke with dozens of people over two days and there was tremendous curiosity around blockchain and particular interest in MintHealth’s unique approach. For this article, we’ll take a closer look at how these exciting technologies can be applied.

As outlined before, we are in the midst of a chronic disease epidemic. Each year, around 40 million people die from chronic conditions, like diabetes and heart disease. Although these conditions are largely preventable, many still put themselves at risk through poor food choices, sedentary lifestyles, excessive alcohol use, medication non-compliance, and smoking. In addition, patients with chronic conditions may see a physician only every three to six months, largely ignoring their condition(s) in between visits. Data clearly show that patients who are engaged have better outcomes, but we haven’t given them the means to do so.

In fact, for those who want to be more engaged, the system puts up roadblocks. Patients often have limited access to the medical information in their electronic health record (EHR). If they want to see a specialist in a different network, it’s unlikely the two siloed EHRs even talk to each other. If they have any personal devices, like a FitBit, or use an app like myfitnesspal, it is unlikely that data has been incorporated into their health record. Their medical imaging including their x-rays, CT scans, and more are also spread across disparate record keeping systems increasing redundancy of testing and incomplete treatment plans by doctors who don’t have access to the whole picture.

MintHealth sees a different future: offer patients immediate access to their own, self-sovereign, portable medical records and incentivize them to improve their health.

Blockchain tech, a decentralized transaction ledger overlaid on an open sourced peer-to-peer network allows for the near real-time transfer of any records or information. While the technology has been popularized in cryptocurrency, namely bitcoin, the application of blockchain in healthcare is a stronger use case due to existing silo’d patient data streams within legacy clinical and administrative electronic health record systems. Blockchain is adaptable, portable and, most importantly, secure, thereby allowing all patient clinical, imaging, and behavioral data to be seamlessly and securely transferred from patient to doctor, to caregivers, and back.

Let’s consider a fictional patient, Adam, who is overweight and prediabetic. In the MintHealth universe, Adam owns his health records, which are secured and accessed through blockchain. The great thing about blockchain is that everyone in the network is watching — any attempt to hack Adam’s data completely disrupts the blocks and becomes immediately evident. Adam has complete access to his lab results, imaging and other tests.

If he visits an cardiologist, he shares a cryptographic key, giving his provider access to his labs, medications, and blood pressure levels that he measured on his own in his iHealth app. His cardiologist is also able to see his echocardiogram images, which shows that his heart muscle is slightly enlarged from years of high BP. The doctor is then able to prescribe a higher dose of the BP med to address the high BP readings the patient has been experiencing when outside of the office. It doesn’t matter if his specialists and primary care physician are on different EHRs, as the MintHealth platform is completely agnostic.

If Adam gets an x-ray at any facility, he can easily share that image with any provider through NucleusHealth, a platform partner of MintHealth. He does not have to drive to an office and pick up a DVD, nor does he risk the data being unavailable and having to repeat the x-ray.

In addition, Adam has given blockchain access to his insurance company, which is incentivizing him to adopt healthier habits. If he completes a minimum number of steps, views a diabetes webinar, or measures his glucose, he receives tokens called Vidamints, which can be exchanged for lower premiums or other rewards. In short — Adam is healthier, he pays less premiums, and the insurance company has healthier members, ultimately improving their return.

Furthermore, because he controls and owns the data, Adam can share it with whomever he sees fit. If a pharmaceutical company want to understand how he responds to a particular drug, he can allow them access and receive Vidamints for his participation. Researchers can leverage data from Adam, and thousands of others to study population health.

A growing body of literature has shown that social and financial incentives, along with gamification can drive healthier habits. MintHealth was designed with these features, so Adam becomes an active participant in his own care. The end result is clear: Adam is healthier, his records are portable and the appropriate people and organizations have access when necessary. Healthcare costs go down, duplicated tests are reduced and research is empowered. It’s a win for everyone.

We’re thrilled to bring MintHealth to market and want everyone to know how it works. We’ve published an extensive white paper outlining the MintHealth vision and how Vidamints will work for you. Download the white paper at http://www.vidamints.io.