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PS: there was no 'Blockchain' community so I'm posting the question here.

Hi,

I am very new to blockchain but understand the basic underlying concept of blockchain. I can understand application of blockchain for supply-chain in ensuring transparency and maintaining quality of the product from manufacturing till customer acquisition.

Now consider an app, can be web app or mobile app, that screens the doctors to get them on the app, then customers can choose the doctors according to the illness they are facing and audio/video call to them to diagnose and write prescriptions.

My question is, do you think there is a considerable need for blockchain to enhance transparency- means a doctor who was screened at beginning is the same doctor treating you and that the medicine that was prescribed is the same medicine that patients gets ? So every event is recorded in a distributed database which is decentralized and that makes it much harder to introduce fraud into the system.

Or there is simply no need of it because its already digitized to an extent that we can ensure these basic points above without the use of preserving tokens at every step.

Let me know if anyone needs more info on this.

Eagerly waiting for a response !

Thanks

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  • This is not a consensus problem. You don't need to complicate solutions for it using consensus protocols.
    – Pieter Wuille
    Oct 30, 2017 at 13:26
  • Thanks Pieter. I agree to some extent, perhaps I should build a reputation system in some simple to-the-point solution
    – Ankit Dhanna
    Oct 30, 2017 at 15:54

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I think this topic is a bit off, as this is a developer oriented forum. A better forum might be bitcointalk.org.

But sometimes we have to think outside the box :-) To re-create the link to dev and crypto: it might make sense to think about a "colored" coin (medcoin ?), that allows to pay for medical services. Thinking about the insurance in the background, using (Bitcoin's) smart contracts, one could really innovate the extremely expensive medical system (can only speak for Europe). And lightning would allow us to pay per pill! Or per minutes of consultancy.

If I get it right, you are trying to put a reputation system up and running, by bringing everything into blockchain, to be fraud proof. Sounds a bit like an overkill, as Pieter already mentioned.

I can see the benefits for transparency, and some disadvantages (from a socio-political point of view). There is the point of data protection, which plays a vital role in Europe. And certainly you don't want everyone to know, that the doctor gave you medicaments, which may have bad reputation for you (aka Viagra or similar). And then, the link between a doctor and a patient is - a bit delicate. On the one hand side you need to have trust, and on the other hand side you pay... Introducing a control instance, I don't know what will it do to doctors. Would they be willing to support?

The idea is a bit too fresh and new, challenges us, needs to get some more thoughts spent on, and then be developed into the proper direction. My two cents...

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  • Definitely more than 2 cents ! Haven't thought from social acceptance angle. Without getting into more thoughts, I think I should drop the idea as it is expensive to apply it on a new system rather than on existing one
    – Ankit Dhanna
    Oct 30, 2017 at 16:09

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