MetaCare Global

At any given moment, there are millions of people around the world seeking the appropriate medical support within a healthcare system around the world. However, at the same time, there are just as many, if not more, individuals around the world that require care but do not receive adequate support due to the insufficient information available to their health care providers. Government initiatives and actions in various countries have collected data within the country in an attempt to respond to this insufficient supply, but many factors such as ethics and trust contribute to the inefficient progression in bridging this gap. At the same time, population minorities are often exposed to exploitation and experimentation due to vulnerabilities such as the lack of understanding of ethical research practices. As well, unethical experimentation occurs due to a lack of a more favourable approach perceived by researchers.

With these problems in mind, a database using decentralized systematic data collection in conjunction with anonymized encryption taken to global scale targets this issue to improve interoperability. 

The decentralized systematic data collection on a global scale targets the following problems and barriers. 

1. Knowledge accessibility: Understanding that countries have their own standard of practice, information about practice and guidelines are hard to share across borders. As well, underserved communities are likely less able to access this information because resources in health care are usually transmitted 

2. Ethics: Healthcare and patient-based databases contain sensitive information that could harm an individual if released or found, so encryption can minimize this worry.

3. Exploitation: Exploitation occurs in research when a knowledgeable party uses unempowered and ignorant parties or individuals, with or without original intent. Improving baseline knowledge about exploitation targets this problem from both sides (researcher and participants).

4. Uninformed resource allocation: Care varies from hospital to hospital. A decentralized systematic data collection reaches a greater span to include a more comprehensive understanding of care in different locations, allowing for better resource allocation.

Our solution is mainly focused on two sections:

1. Create a whole new blockchain-based online platform that stores numerous data including but not limited to patient personal health records collected based on institutions, medical cases, fundamental medical protocol and others. Based on the tremendous amount of information and data we gather from the platform, we expect to utilize big data analysis to evaluate, analyze, and identify a minimum standard for healthcare practices globally. 

2. With the large amount of data at our hands, we hope to create an accessible database available for researchers to use. This will reduce the cost of data collection done on smaller scales while also striving for a widespread good practice in research that we are implementing within this system.

3. As a long-term byproduct, we also hope the system will contribute to improving the effectiveness of the current Electronic Health Record system (EHR) with superior efficiency, functionality, security, and accessibility while forming a large data pool for various medical data.

Present-day patient data recording and sharing are facing multiple inefficiencies and limitations that not just restrict the patient’s own accessibility but also reduce the availability of the essential big data to provide the care providers. Storing patient healthcare data in a blockchain-based platform will be one of the most effective and practical remedies for such a situation. Patients' information will be securely stored in a set of different nodes which ensure the privacy and security of their own medical records, the special infrastructure of blockchain technology can also greatly enhance information interoperability.

The target population we serve include underrepresented individuals from low-income geographical locations where medical knowledge of health care providers is not adequate. This solution addresses their need as information is exchanged across all participating institutions such that templates and guidelines can be more accessible.

Our current team is comprised of three individuals each with different background including experienced healthcare system, connections, and an understanding of lifestyle of rural areas in China, Australia, and Canda. As well, based in Toronto, Canada, we in close proximity to providers of high quality health care practices in Canada such as Toronto General Hospital which is ranked the world’s 4th best hospital in 2021. 

To undersand the needs of those we expect to serve, we have gathered and pooled information from literature searches, blogs and posts about experiences, and individual experiences from those coming from from underserved communities in Australia, China, and Canada. To ensure our solution is appropriately framed to serve the targeted communities, we value client-centered approach where stakeholders such as members of marginalized communities, patients, physicians, political individuals, and other key players will be included in every stage of the solution developement. 

With our goals in mind, we would like to seek help from Solve in the following ways:

1. Technical: With our low-fidelity prototype, we seek to find or partner with the appropriate parties to confirm the feasibility and finalize the intricate design of this database.

2. Finance: At our current stage of solution with a low-fidelity prototype, we want to seek funding to proceed with the development of high fidelity prototype. As well, we plan to patent our solution through PCT which require an initial amount of funding.

3. Normative influence: If selected as a Solver, this partnership will help convince the target audience about any demonstrated results of success and potential impact given it can be backed up by a trusted organization like Solve.

4. Market strategies: Further down the pipeline, our team will require help from market professionals to gain a deeper insight into the field, which we hope Solve can assist us.

Currently, decentralized information storage through blockchain has been applied in patient access to their medical record or physician uploading and retrieving medical records. However, blockchain has been limited to accessing medical records, rather than analyzing them. Therefore, while our solution does not incorporate new technology, it is innovative because strings existing technology into new use by having a decentralized collection and storage with encryption such that data can be accessed only on demand to be later described. As well, our solution is aimed at a population level that includes units of data that will be coded based on institution, which differs from the current competitors who use each patient health record as individual units.

The main impact we wish to achieve with this project is to improve current solutions in the medical field, allowing countries to adapt treatment methods and resources from each other, balancing the medical goods and giving support to countries who currently struggle with health care. We want to assure that medical systems are more precise and citizens are satisfied with the treatment they are getting, which seems to be problematic under the status quo in developing countries and those who are less financially assisted.

Within the next 5 years, we would like to include at least 40 countries in our system. Our plan is to, after building our platform, prioritize reaching out to Canada, China and Australia, since our team members are a representation of the listed countries. At the same time, we would also reach out to investors with our progress and business model. Within 2 years, we would also reach out to the United States, as they would create a big impact on the system with their strong medical system. 

We will measure our impact progress by constantly keeping track of the information shared through the platform, the amount of change/improvement in countries’ medical systems based on their successful operations of adapting to new forms of treatment. 

We are also able to measure the statistical results of survival/death rates for specific diseases in order to see if countries have benefited from new treatment ideas.

Blockchains are essentially decentralized repositories of information that are distributed across nodes of computer networks based on three fundamental characteristics. First, immutability - the transactions are unable to be deleted or modified and there will always be a complete and irreversible record of all transactions. Second, decentralization is a decentralized data structure consisting of chains of blocks that hold sets of different information with no entity owning or in full control of the blockchain. Third, enhanced security; as the blockchain database maintains transparency by recording data and transactions, the information will be encrypted by multiple cryptographic primitives such as pseudo anonymity (replacing names with identifiers) and public key infrastructure (PKI). Since the application of blockchain technology on healthcare data also applies these three fundamental characteristics, it makes a great fit for the critical need for enhancement of not just the fidelity and security but also the efficiency of electronic health records storing and sharing. 

Blockchain technology was originally best known for its crucial role in cryptocurrency systems like Bitcoin as it records the financial transactions of the allocation of Bitcoin.

In a healthcare context, the transaction ledger would consist of records and documentation of various medical and healthcare data from basic patient information to a large number of cases information including disease symptoms and necessary procedures, which can be analyzed and summarized into a minimum protocol for action items required that apply globally to different regions and areas with varying conditions. Deploying blockchain means demolishing information exchange barriers in the current EHR system

Big data refers to the large, diverse sets of information that is often unmanageable using traditional measures like software or online platform. Big data normally are considered to grow in three different dimensions - volume, velocity, and variety (the 3Vs). As the term “big data” spread globally in recent years, nearly every area of research and study is generating and analyzing big data that serve various purposes. 

Healthcare, as one of the most sophisticated systems that relate to multiple dimensions including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, is in need of a more efficient and intelligent way of collecting and analyzing the tremendous amount of data and information.

We can organize ourselves to deliver more optimal outcomes the more information we have.

In a healthcare context, combining deploying blockchain and big data suggested an innovation on the previous health care system’s efficiency, safety, integrity, and accessibility.  The sharing of an immense amount of global medical data first includes the basic patient information organized based on hospital/care institutions, then by geographical location, and lastly, based on country. This tiered organization allows for easier data retrieval when needed for research and provides baseline measurements and suggestions based on institutions or geographical location.

As both a profit/non-profit organization we wish to become, we value impact more than revenue. We wish to impact a big population in countries around the world of all ages, especially those who may not have the best access to satisfying health care, who may be concerned with financial stability and access to other resources. Studies have shown that over 5 million people die from inaccessible/bad health care in middle/low-income countries. Even people from high-class counties die due to delays/failures of treatment. We believe that certain health care systems should not be restricted to a specific county, with the ideology that lives value the most, we want to close the gap between health care systems of countries. Under the case of struggling with a treatment plan, countries are now able to learn and adapt ideas from other countries who may have a solution, or, unite together to come up with a new concept of treatment.

By creating an online platform, we are ensuring the spread of information, a study of medical cases, and newly invented resources that may be accessible to more countries compared to if we did not have a place to share this information. With the help of tech control, we are able to guarantee privacy to patients of the cases we study, or any other information, showing only the territory of declaration. We also want to make the platform accessible to all parts of the globe that have access to the internet, without having to go through firewalls or other territorial limiting procedures. 

We will be charging based on the amount of data required and the amount of data available for access, the ratio between amount and cost will be lowered as more information is requested.