RightAngle: Doc.com
Welcome to ‘RightAngle’ — our series of interviews with mission-driven blockchain projects sharing their angle on their vision, the industry, and more.
For our seventh installment of the series, our Marketing and Events Manager, Amber McLennan, spoke with Charles Nader, CEO and Founder of Doc.com, a free, personalized, medical support application and social network for doctors, built on the blockchain. Doc.com’s mission is to help provide healthcare the way it should be: free and accessible to all.
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I caught Charles on his way to the airport. He had arrived in Mexico City two days prior from Panama and was on his way to New York to film a segment with Fox Business, ‘Exploring the Block’.
Amber: How did you come up with the idea for Doc.com?
Charles: As a medical school graduate, I recognized that there were huge deficiencies in medicine that could be solved through the use of technology. About six and a half years ago one of the major issues was communication between doctors. Isao, Doc.com Co-Founder, and I attended school together, knew we wanted to start a business, and felt that our previous experience positioned us well to solve this problem.
We decided to build a site, or social network, that would allow doctors to collaborate worldwide and share their medical knowledge. Like a discussion forum exclusively for doctors. Participants could contribute new treatments and post about advancements and discuss them. This was needed as with the medical and pharmaceutical systems being so regulated, many treatments, and knowledge, are isolated to certain countries. Our platform opened up the conversation to create global dialogue.
We originally launched the website in Spanish as the company was founded in Mexico. Soon after going live, we began to see rapid adoption. Within a short period, we had over 1000 doctors registered with us in Mexico.
This was a needed signal for me. At the time, I was working a full-time job in the tax sector and had invested the majority my personal savings into the company. Jumping in fully was nerve-racking… it was a huge life decision. But when I saw how our platform could make a real difference for the good of humanity, and that it was wanted, I decided to go all in.
I started applying to accelerator programs to advance my business knowledge. We got accepted to multiple accelerators and went to Silicon Valley. The learnings from these programs was invaluable and sparked more ideas for the platform. It was during this time that we decided to create a form of free healthcare.
Some people thought this idea was crazy, near impossible… but it was something that we knew was important to do. Elon Musk captured this feeling when he said, “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor”. That was how we felt.
Our healthcare service ended up becoming our main service, which is Doc.com today. Our docHealth app has the most users and provides the greatest social impact.
Amber: After launching the platform in Mexico, what was the deciding factor to continue to expand into other countries?
Charles: When we first launched locally, we had no idea what to expect. Within three months, after seeing the rapid uptake and the impact it had, we decided to launch the platform in the rest of Latin America.
The quick expansion was also due to the lack of telemedical regulations in the area. With the medical space being so regulated, and as we were the first to create a platform like this, we recognized that we needed to take advantage of the lack of telemedical regulations.
After expanding, we saw larger platform growth in other countries than we had in Mexico. There was a desire for what we were offering, and we knew we could make a big impact on people’s lives the faster we grew.
Amber: Why did you decide to add blockchain technology to Doc.com?
Charles: I first learned about Bitcoin during a university course in 2013. Our CTO at the time was also investigating the use cases for blockchain. We both saw the benefits of putting data on the blockchain. Independent from the crypto aspect, we were establishing ourselves as a data company, as it was our main source of revenue. We recognized that it would provide more transparency, especially with the sensitive healthcare data we were collecting.
At the time, although we both liked the concept, we put the idea on the backburner. It was still too new at the time; blockchains like Ethereum that you could build on, weren’t around yet.
In 2017, after having run the company successfully for a few years, we revisited the technology and decided that it would benefit our platform.
Today, we use a crypto economy model to create sustainable revenue. A crypto economy being a form of incentives, you give me something — I’ll pay you for it. In the case of Doc.com, our patients give us data, we anonymize the data, commercialize it, and the data is managed transparently on the blockchain. Every time that we give someone a treatment, we reward that person with cryptocurrency, and we also reward ourselves, which provides a steady flow of revenue.
Amber: Since your ICO, you’ve seen rapid growth. How has that experience been?
Charles: Our ICO, in 2017, has led to us being able to expand our platform even further. Today, we offer free health care in over 20 countries. In addition to our docHealth app, we have also launched free mental health support from psychologists, anytime, 24 hours a day, for free.
Seeing the impact that we’ve already had is amazing. We are living the dream that we have always dreamt of having. Our team is wanting to continue to expand and grow our services and to continue to give back.
Amber: That is truly inspiring. You’ve already done so much.
As your service provides free health care, I imagine that a number of your patients are from rural areas. Is connectivity an issue for these people?
Charles: Connectivity is an issue.
Here in Mexico, even in the poorest areas that we have visited, people are finding ways to get cell phones. I was speaking with the future Secretary of Health today, and he told me how he was recently in the mountains in a small village, and came across a young girl who had a cell phone. People are looking to be connected, and they will find any way to do so. There are thankfully some inexpensive smart phone options that make it more accessible.
Amber: People tend to find that surprising, that people in poverty still have access, or will find a way to access phones. I think that is why it is so wonderful what your application does. It helps reach those that may get left behind due to a lack of medical knowledge and not knowing when to go see a doctor.
Charles: Yes, we have seen it firsthand. I received an email from a man who had connected his grandmother from a rural area with a doctor through Doc.com, who found out that she was diabetic. She had spent years not leaving her home due to the pain she was experiencing, and not knowing why… with the access to information from our doctors, now she is able to do so.
We also had a case of a mother who was pregnant for the first time and started to experience bleeding — which you shouldn’t have at all. Due to a lack of education and a fear of asking, she went days without seeking medical attention. She used Doc.com to seek advice and was sent to the hospital just in time. Her child’s life was saved.
Amber: That is truly amazing.
Are there any big barriers that you’ve faced in terms of growth?
Charles: As our platform connects patients directly with a doctor or psychologist, we have to continue to optimize to sustain growth. To service all those that need medical attention, we would need an army of doctors, that is why we lean on technology. Recently, we have implemented AI.
Amber: With the ability to continue to grow using tech, do you have any expansion plans in the near future?
Charles: We are currently working on launching in Europe and the United States, which should be happening in a matter of days. We also plan to launch our veterinary service for those looking to be connected to a vet for free. It is all on the same blockchain.
The data we are collecting, from both humans and animals, has so much potential for scientific studies and discoveries. Our long-term objective is that our data will be used to better humanity.
Finishing our call, as Charles arrived at the airport, we discussed the potential of his platform in rural areas. Providing free health care to those in emerging markets, refugee camps, or areas lacking connectivity, would have an enormous impact globally.
RightMesh, as a connectivity platform, could help those in these areas access a platform like Doc.com.
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