ICO Start-ups: Meet the founder of Coral Health
MLG Blockchain Consulting is committed to supporting unique and upcoming ICOs on their journey towards successfully integrating their blockchain technology. And we know many of you are curious to dive deep in the minds behind these novel blockchain projects.
That’s why we decided to kickstart ICO Start-ups — Meet the Founders Series. In this series, we aim to support your learning progression of upcoming and current ICOs by asking insightful questions to the founders themselves! Today, meet the brilliant father of Coral Health, Andy Park — a health technology entrepreneur who has devoted his life to the field and to improving healthcare for everyone.
1. How did you first get involved with the blockchain century?
I first heard about blockchain about five years ago. It was my good friend Luke who introduced me to the technology and to its potential uses outside of payments. Today, Luke is actually the architect at Coral Health, which is pretty cool. After Luke opened my eyes to the other application of blockchain, it really piqued my interest and that’s when I began realizing the impact that the technology could have in terms of improving processes across industries.
2. What inspired the idea of your Token Sale, was it spontaneous? Was it an idea you had for a long time?
The idea for Coral Health really came out as an extension of my PhD thesis. But, I’ve also spent a lot of time in the healthcare technology field and that opened my eyes to the inefficiencies that plague the system. It had all been brewing in my head for a while, but it was only after a successful liquidity event that it really hit me that blockchain was the solution to solving key security and data aggregation issues in the medical industry. After that, I just went for it; I quickly gathered a team who I knew could get the project off the ground and Coral Health was born.
3. What did you do before starting Coral Health? Did you demonstrate prior expertise in blockchain?
Prior to founding Coral Health, I was pursuing my PhD. However, I’ve been pretty heavily involved in the software and the biotech industry for over a decade now. During this time, I’ve became intimately familiar with the myriad of inefficiencies that plague our healthcare system, but I also had the opportunity to develop software and patent-pending tools for a few healthcare-based companies. Though I had known about and been interested in blockchain for a while, my experience with blockchain really came from learning about everything that the technology could do for security and for data aggregation. It was after talking with luminaries in the genomics and personalized medicine fields that I realized the implications that it could have for the healthcare industry.
4. Who is the team behind Coral Health and why are they awesome?
The Coral Health team is an experienced group of technologists, leading scientists, and health policy experts that are passionate about making healthcare more efficient, patient-focused, and personalized. This passion and the diversity of expertise on the team is really what allows us to stand out and to innovate in the sorts of things that we do.
5. How did you bring this idea to life?
The most important milestone for Coral Health was to bring together a team of luminaries in the biotechnology, healthcare, and software development fields. Everyone on the team has participated significantly in both leadership roles and in product development, which has allowed us to develop ground-breaking innovations at the firm and at the industry level.
6. What problem does your Token Sale plan to solve?
We’re aiming to solve the problem of massive information gaps that are plaguing the healthcare system today. Currently, information is kept in silos that are not interoperable, and our systems for exchanging and storing information are less than optimal, so we’re working on improving these systems with the goal of bridging the information gaps in healthcare. We’re doing this in part by helping patients to securely store and readily access their medical information, and then by incentivizing them to share that data in order to improve data access and enable personalized, coordinated care.
7. Please walk us through the user experience of someone who would use Coral Health.
There are different players in our ecosystem on Coral Health, so I’ll start by addressing the user experience for the general public followed by that for businesses that partake in healthcare such as labs, pharmacies and insurers.
Anyone, or in other words any patient, can download our medical records app. People can either have records directly uploaded by their doctors, or they can upload results themselves by taking a picture of them. Of course, everything that is uploaded is secure; records are encrypted by default on the app. Only the individual or someone with their authorization can decrypt the data. Once data has been uploaded onto our system, patients can securely access and share that information with anyone they choose. This app will also allow those who have uploaded their information to request health tips from a readily available marketplace of healthcare professionals. We’re also in the process of developing intelligence that will help analyze data so that it will be easier for patients to monitor and improve their health.
On the business side, we’re developing B2B applications that provide operational efficiencies to labs, insurers, health authorities, drug companies, and pharmacies. These entities would use our system in order to streamline processes and increase their profitability.
8. How big is the market you are addressing?
The healthcare industry is massive with $3.4 trillion spent in the US each year. Our team has identified and discussed numerous use cases that can drive efficiencies throughout the system. However, we’re starting with a few readily addressable pain points that currently comprise substantial markets. For example, we decided to focus on prior authorizations. These cost doctors alone $30 billion a year in the US and they cost insurers far more than that. So, we decided to leverage blockchain to automate these via one of our first applications. Rather than having doctors and insurers manually completing and reviewing prior authorizations, these will be carried out automatically by this app. Therefore, the app will alleviate a pain point by dramatically reducing the amount of time and resources spent on this aspect of healthcare.
9. Who are the major investors behind Coral Health? (for cross-promotions and endorsements)
We have several institutional investors as well as many smaller investors that purchased Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs) during our private sale. But, our largest investor is definitely the STI Financial Group.
10. Where is your Token Sale registered? Which country?
Our token sale will be registered in British Columbia, Canada, where our headquarters are located.
11. What is your favourite blockchain that was created and why? Do you use it yourself?
Ethereum’s forthcoming move to Proof of Stake (Casper) is a hot topic and one that I’m watching closely. If Ethereum can maintain an optimal balance of security and transaction speed, it can usher in a new era in dApp development and in blockchain in general.
12. If you had the opportunity to meet the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, what is the one thing you would want to ask him?
What other applications of the blockchain did you envision when you created it?
If you want to know more on Coral Heath, make sure to read their whitepaper and follow them on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/myCoralHealth
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/FX6A7UThIZ1WOUNirDS_Ew
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC05mX04WdhyBn9ZjqzmetvA/videos
Medium: https://medium.com/@mycoralhealth
Email: info@mycoralhealth.com
