Cardano Healthcare Infrastructure

Why Decentralized Health (DeHealth), why now?

There are huge developments in blockchain's decentralized finance (DeFi) in recent years. DeFi now has lots of useful applications that are now being used by a growing number of people.

On the health side, however, progress has been a bit slow given the challenges. For example, on top of building one's app, one has to consider regulatory compliance, data security, interoperability, and much more which could be time-consuming to do. 

But if there is an existing decentralized Healthcare Infrastructure and Platform integrated with Cardano that devs can utilize, this could accelerate more health apps development.  Developers can focus on building their health apps on top of the platform, saving months and even years of dev time.

But building a Healthcare Infrastructure takes years to build!

Right, that is correct. Fortunately, we have started building this healthcare platform called HAPI Hub (short for Healthcare API Hub) since 2016. You can check its comprehensive API services at www.hapihub.com. 

In addition, we also built frontend applications like Electronic Health Records (EHR), Laboratory and Radiology Information Systems, and other health modules. It's called HAPI Cure (also known as www.mycure.md).

If they are already built, what else needs to be done?

We plan to further enhance HAPI Hub and HAPI Cure by integrating them in Cardano Blockchain, which adds more security and immutability, enhancing the platform furthermore. This integration module will be called HAPI Chain. 

In our estimation, HAPI Chain will take about 8 to 12 weeks to complete.

How is it different from other healthcare apps In blockchain?

Well, aside from its already existing HAPI Hub and HAPI Cure platform, it will utilize the significant developments in Zero-Knowlege (zk) proof, a cryptography protocol, where prover (A) can prove that A knows information X to a verifier (B) without sharing any other knowledge to B other than that A knows X. Having this will address the limitation on scalability, privacy, and auditability.

Why is the project called HAPI DAO?

HAPI DAO consists of the three aforementioned products -  HAPI Hub, HAPI Cure, and HAPI Chain. It will adapt the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) model, popularized and proven to be effective by the likes of MakerDAO and Uniswap. Doing so will help achieve a truly decentralized organizational setup on top of the decentralized ledger provided by the Cardano blockchain.

With such in place, the direction of the organization is directed by the right intentions of the community and not by a central figure. This is especially important for projects like this dealing with people's health records which require utmost security, privacy, and accountability. 

So, what are practical applications?

1. Security & Compliance. Around the globe, there are thousands of health facilities (clinics, health centers, hospitals) that are using Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems. Many of which are not secure and compliant, meaning the health information of patients is at risk of exposure. HAPI DAO can help in this regard.

1. Availability of Solutions. Many of the health facilities don't even have their own medical records system. HAPI Cure already has available solutions like EHR, LIS, RIS, and other health modules that they can use. 

1. Health App Development. If one is building a health app, there is a high chance it would need a module for user health records storage. Instead of doing this from scratch, it can utilize HAPI DAO's comprehensive API services instead without worrying about data security and compliance.

1. Standards & Interoperability. Existing systems of health facilities have different providers, meaning they are built differently. Integrating HAPI DAO will make it interoperable with other systems as it follows industry-standard protocols. Imagine a whole town, city, or even a nation's health systems interconnected. 

1. Health Information Exchange. A truly decentralized and secure HIE remains elusive, even for advanced countries. But putting Cardano technology + ZK proof with HAPI DAO could ultimately be the holy grail the healthcare industry has long been wanting to achieve. (One great example of this is the Vaccine Passport providers which can use this as a central exchange for validation. In doing so, there would be fewer if no apprehensions at all about data security and privacy.)

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For more details of the idea, a draft of the Decentralized, Secure, & Trustless Health Infrastructure and Information Exchange Platform can be found in this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lO6WsUjTzm0x0f2ioK-DsPnB5h1lyMBvnhtQr3gvirI/edit?usp=sharing