PatientDataChain - Blockchain approach to disrupt patient-provider medical records data exchange

Project Information

PatientDataChain

Grant agreement ID: 886084

DOI

10.3030/886084

Project closed

EC signature date 3 December 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 30 June 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SETRIO SOFT SRL
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PatientDataChain (PatientDataChain - Blockchain approach to disrupt patient-provider medical records data exchange)

Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Founded in 2004, Setrio is, by definition, a software development company in the health sector. Our technological solutions address pharmacies, physicians, and warehouses and distributors, pursuing a flexible and customer-oriented approach. Through data management and interpretation systems, we offer optimal infrastructure support, advisory services and profitable business support.

Initially named PatientDataChain, then rebranded as SETRIO Care, our solution was born from the needs of our current customers, who complained about the absence of a single trusted infrastructure to exchange and store patient information along the healthcare value chain and have suggested the development of a patient traceability system. The current lack of patient traceability systems leads to high communication and procedural costs and limits health players in developing a better understanding and know-how on patients’ journey that could further boost innovation and the development of best fitted health services.

So, we designed and started working on SETRIO Care – a blockchain-based technology, aimed to become a game-changer for decentralizing infrastructure and building a trust layer in the healthcare value chain. The challenge is to catalyze the medical ecosystem in the service of the patient and bring the entire stakeholders’ chain together. This will dramatically reduce time delays, added costs, and human error that affect the healthcare value chain today. While conducting the SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility study, we identified another stringent problem that the healthcare system is facing and that SETRIO Care can address: non-adherence .

The objective of this project was to undertake a feasibility study in order to (1) acquire a deep understanding of the market, competitors, customer segments, end-users and stakeholders. The aim was to further improve our business model, by means of a market study and customer/end-user and stakeholder analysis; (2) determine the market clearance by means of an initial “freedom to operate” analysis; (3) verify the technical viability; (4) ensure a proper IP management strategy to protect our knowledge base.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Our team engaged in several forms of market research, including: customer validation tests, in-depth technical study of further content development, price acceptance and sensitivity analysis, cost-benefit-analysis, surveys and strategic planning, and risk and regulatory environment assessment.

Throughout the feasibility study we have conducted the following main activities:
• Exploring the possible actors of the ecosystem through semi-structured interviews
• Technological assessment and developing a PoC
• Building the initial overview of the business model
• Dissemination by participating at various events for start-ups (Startup Grind Global Conference – Silicon Valley) and start-ups accelerators (InnovX – Bucharest).

Our starting point was the idea to provide patients and doctors an immutable log of healthcare records through SETRIO Care, solve the non-adherence challenge and catalyze the medical ecosystem in the service of the patient.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Discussions of non-adherence tend to attribute the problem exclusively to the individual patient, while the evidence suggests that health system characteristics – in particular the quality of patient-provider interaction, cumbersome procedures for refilling prescriptions, or out-of-pocket costs of medications – are lead drivers. Most interventions tackling poor adherence have focused on patients, particularly their forgetfulness and incorrect beliefs about medications, rather than taking a systems level approach by understanding and changing the context in which healthcare is provided. Increasing the effectiveness of adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health of the population than any improvement in specific medical treatments.

Setrio’s blockchain-based technology is a game-changer for decentralizing infrastructure and building a trust layer in the healthcare value chain. This could dramatically reduce non-adherence, time delays, added costs, and human error that affect the healthcare value chain today.

SETRIO Care’s vision to solve the non-adherence problem is based on TWO ingredients: guidance and incentives.
1. We guide the patient with a health wallet solution built on blockchain technology, which integrates the entire healthcare chain and aggregates the patients’ medical history, giving him full ownership through the blockchain.
2. We raise patient engagement with a benefits program supported by the players who have the most to lose due to non-adherence: insurance companies, pharma producers, the Government, and local authorities.

SETRIO Care takes a different approach to incentivizing the patients by giving access to anonymized healthcare data in exchange for supporting the network. It eliminates the existing barriers that currently obstacle communication on patients’ journey along the health value chain. Thus, for the care pathway, the workflows and patient processes are streamlined.

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