Many of us have heard about the Internet of Things (IOT) in recent years, and more recently the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), and perhaps even the growth estimates of this enormous industry as a whole. When we think of these devices, we may imagine sensors connected to our smartwatch or perhaps certain household items that are part of what is now becoming the “smart home.” But what about devices that may serve us in a life or death situation? Or, perhaps devices that regulate specific bodily functions to prevent a potentially deadly event? Cue medical devices.

A study conducted by Markets to Markets found that “The global connected medical devices market to grow at a CAGR of 9.24% during the period 2017–2021.” All things considered, the push towards a more connected world will certainly include the devices we are going to rely on for our healthcare. IoT and IoMT medical devices have a broad range of characteristics and functionality. For now, let’s consider devices that perform functions that require hardware, software, and connectivity.

There is clear evidence that connected medical devices will continue to proliferate and become smarter to help reduce cost and will need to become more interconnected as part of a greater information system. This trend will also open the doors to malware, viruses, and new attack vectors that could directly put people’s lives in jeopardy — whether it be for ransom, blackmail, or otherwise from hackers infiltrating the system.

For safeguarding purposes, medical devices have been locked down in an attempt to prevent malicious infiltration and also to protect the intellectual property rights of the manufacturer. However, because the devices and their counterpart systems are made with proprietary hardware/software, it is extremely difficult to make multiple devices and systems communicate in such a way that gives a holistic view of a patient’s overall well-being. For the IoMT or IoT of healthcare to really become efficient and scalable, medical devices are going to have to integrate into one coherent system which is no easy task, and certainly not by current methods. They will need to process vast amounts of data to be relevant in an age where big data can be scalable and processed effectively for optimal results and accurate recommendations to be made without conceding intellectual property of the manufacturer, or compromise security.

If we look at a common example of a critical medical device, in this case a pacemaker, there are a few systems in place and possible attack routes that could lead to serious injury or even death. Modern pacemaker implantable devices are connected in two main ways — an at home data unit connects wirelessly to the pacemaker when in range and transmits monitor data to the provider via the internet. At an office visit, the provider will also be able to access the device live via a vendor-specific wireless access mechanism to view data and/or make tuning adjustments to it. It’s possible for an attacker to access the wireless network and infiltrate the pacemaker to augment the functionality remotely or to manipulate the data unit readout so that the provider is misinformed and makes the wrong adjustments.

Anything that is connected can be infiltrated and exploited by hackers, but at the same time we need to have interoperable devices to make meaningful use of the vast amounts of data produced from them. This data is currently siloed and is analyzed individually. For the most effective analysis it would be ideal if multiple devices were able to achieve a level of interoperability whereby the full picture of patient health data is calculated together. There is a solution that is showing promise in this area and that is the healthcare blockchain, sometimes referred to as a medical blockchain, provided by Helix3.

Helix3 is a healthcare blockchain startup that uses blockchain technology to safely and securely transact information between patients, providers and payers within the healthcare ecosystem. A blockchain network called Ethereum is equipped with “smart contracts” that automatically execute when certain criteria are authenticated using a randomized network of nodes that calculate complex algorithms which are mathematically linked to one another. A series of nodes on the network need to make enough correct calculations in which consensus is reached for the transaction to be valid, then whatever criteria governs the smart contract will be automatically executed. If somehow, a bad actor infiltrates this network and attempts to tamper with the transaction the consensus will fail and the bad actor ejected. Since proof of stake is required (financial participation) to transact on this network the bad actor will lose stake and it then becomes cost prohibitive to tamper with transactions. This method of communication is specifically useful for exchanging the rights to use certain information which puts the patient in control of their sensitive healthcare data, rather than relying on the current centralized computer systems which have many security vulnerabilities and have already been exploited many times.

Meaningful Use Stage 3 encourages the use of API’s to help bridge gaps in health IT systems, this solution could satisfy that effort without compromising security. Every patient, provider and payor will have a “digital twin” of themselves on the Helix network comprising of all the necessary information and valid proof of stake needed to make transactions — this is established in the system before any transactions can be made. The same principal can be applied to medical devices, whereby each device has a digital twin which is authorized to transact with other devices and analyzed together to get the full picture quickly and securely. This can effectively resolve the issue of siloed data and make for faster decisions on proper treatment and patients will be able to view their records, treatments and recommendations in their app interface.

What this means for the future of healthcare is giving providers and patients timely insights into otherwise isolated systems of health data analysis, bringing about an era that redefines precision medicine and will likely lead to more advances in healthcare.

Leading up to being able to solve the interoperability and security problem of medical devices, Helix3 is using the concept of gamification to motivate people to sustain healthier lives by creating and accepting physical activity challenges through their interactive app. The app is able to integrate with wearable devices to track activity and give feedback. It also features a community to share progress and ranking among peers. Participants are rewarded HLX tokens that can be used to purchase goods and services through a digital marketplace.

I’m over 30 and still play video games. There, I said it. No shame whatsoever and there are many, many others who do so at this age or over as well. For me, gaming has been a pastime that stayed with me into adulthood. I’m a product of the 90’s and in addition to insisting it was by far the best decade in all aspects (it was) I also insist we had some of the best titles. Many of those game titles continue on today except with supercharged graphics, elaborate storylines, and the increasingly popular multiplayer modes. I can’t wait to tell the next generation when they are old enough to start gaming that back in my day, we didn’t have them online and the closest thing was to play in the same room using multiple controllers with our friends.

One of my favorites is Star Wars Battlefront. This is a game where its almost purely multiplayer and its exciting because not only am I playing against people from all over the world but we can all see how each player is ranked and certain trophies that are earned for completing varios tasks that are usually awarded based on difficulty. Every time I play it I feel a sense of accomplishment because even if I have a bad round I’m still earning fictional currency, and it adds up to buy more sills, armaments and unlockable content. I want to unlock as many characters and items as I can because there is a motivating “force” (pun intended) behind it. I’m by no means an expert or top player, but it’s the thrill of leveling up and knowing that I made progress keeps me coming back for more.

There are plenty of gamers out there that don’t like Battlefront. But I think it’s a safe bet to say that the majority of video gamers have one thing in common; we have a favorite multiplayer game or at least one where we can compare stats with other players online. We also have games where we communicate and play with online friends as a team to accomplish a goal. We became a competitive player and want to maintain that status for as long as we play. And if multiplayer isn’t your thing at all, I’m sure there is some game that you had tried to beat your own best score. Motivation is the driver behind leveling up whether it be compared to other individual players, your team against theirs, yourself, or all the above.

Any game, whether it be video based or otherwise has certain characteristics that motivate the individual to “level up” and sharpen their skills. This could be achieving higher batting averages or being able to lift heavier weights at the gym. Although I love coming home to the gaming console after a long day at the office there are times when I wish I had just as much motivation to hit the gym every day. I do enjoy lifting, but it got me thinking of a concept that really has potential to change the way we engage in activities that are good for us but difficult to endure on willpower alone.

A word that’s been tossed around in recent years is “gamification.” Which basically means taking an otherwise unappealing, challenging task and making it fun to motivate a person to continue through task completion or end goal and usually has a rewards system. The concept has been applied to many fields such as education, where learning is gamified instead of it being heads-down drudgery if we aren’t enthusiastic about the topic. Many learning apps for both children and adults alike use some combination of fantasy, role playing, storytelling and integrates a rewards system to keep you interested throughout each step of the learning process.

The same can be done for healthcare, fitness, and well-being. In my case, I want to be able to have enough motivation to get to the gym every day without viewing it as a chore that must get done so that my primary interest outside of my day job isn’t the Playstation 4.

Helix3 is an example of the gamification of healthcare. It’s an app that aims to build a community where health and wellness is gamified to motivate people to level up in the real world. 

The app is a place where you can get a holistic view of anything related to your personal health by way of using the highly secure healthcare blockchain network where a “digital twin” of yourself is stored. When combined with a gamified approach to keeping yourself healthy it makes a compelling case to put you in control of your health data and be a better version of yourself at the same time.

In the app, you will be able to choose from a variety of sponsored challenges from fitness programs, races, yoga studios, meditation sessions, and spin classes to name a few. Activity can be tracked by either your personal wearable devices or by checking in with the program sponsor. Results and rank can be filtered for you to view and can share among the user community if you choose. Rewards are given in the form of Helix (HLX) tokens that can be exchanged in the Helix Marketplace for gift cards to an assortment of retailers. Over time, more health related merchants will join the community and offer additional rewards in exchange for Helix tokens.

It’s an idea that has a lot of potential for those people like me who need an extra boost of motivation to do the things I know I should be doing but get distracted. Why not shift the distraction to a more productive and tangibly rewarding activity? Much like the video gaming world where you earn fictional currency to unlock new abilities and gear, the same principal can be applied to staying healthy by earning real rewards.

Gaming can be employed in such a way that engages us in positive activities that foster learning, growth, and otherwise healthy habits if we know how to engineer it correctly. Applying gamification to provide the ongoing motivation needed to stay healthy is one way we can achieve lasting results and actually want to do the things we otherwise wouldn’t make a priority.

Market Opportunity: 

We’ve set a goal to make the platform, first and foremost, about better health and wellness for people. While others are primarily focused on solving the problems in reactive healthcare, we are taking a more preventative approach by promoting better habits and behaviors through our Goal Achievement System.

The global wellness market is $3.7 Trillion Dollars spread across nice core markets, all of which have applications that will be built on the Helix³ platform. Marketplace participants can market products and services using HealthOns and Sweepstakes, and also reward members for loyalty, goals, and adherence among other things. Helix3 will create sweepstakes in all 9 categories to drive adoption.

The IoMT market is expected to grow to $117 Billion by 2020 with 20-30 billion devices collecting vast amounts of data.  Helix³ will provide a platform that consolidates this data and drives meaningful use and value through challenges, rewards, future applications, and our marketplace. IoMT manufacturers can design products around rewarding for data using the Helix3 platform. Sweepstakes can be used to market new products and services to our target audience.

The global mHealth market is expected to reach $111B by 2025 and growing at a CAGR of 44.2%. mHealth is expected to save the Healthcare industry $370 billion globally supporting our goal of reducing healthcare costs. Helix3 engages members through an mHealth app offering personalized, predictive, participatory, and preventive applications to deliver optimal care.

Global Big Data in Healthcare is expected to reach $68 billion by 2025. Helix3 provides a data sharing platform that will power big data application using our integration platform, Helix Cortex.

Revenue Models:

Driving health, wellness and a new operating system for healthcare are three key participants:

Merchants: In “the Groupon of Healthcare”, merchants can list one-time purchase items, accept HLX tokens as payment, and gain the opportunity to earn the clients business.  As merchants collect HLX, they can create their own challenges and use the HLX to pay rewards as a FitFlow Provider.

The marketplace also includes a collection of gift cards from vendors like Athleta, Amazon, Nike, and Whole Foods for premium members of the platform. As the marketplace grows, more products and services will be offered. Product listings and transaction provide revenue to Helix³.

Merchants pay a $24.99/month HealthOn listing fee in addition to 25% of the HLX collected to Helix3. The chart below assumes a 5000 HLX HealthOn (approx. $40 USD), average 20 purchases, and a listing of 3 months. The normalization to USD uses the $0.08 USD/HLX price at launch.

In today’s market, merchants most often use Groupon for this type of service. Groupon collects 50% of the coupon sale price. Helix3 approaches 50% cheaper after 40 HealthOns sold.

Data Consumers: As members consolidate IoMT, patient portal, and wearable data, drug companies, clinical trial, and research organizations can purchase data directly from our members. Data Consumers pay $1000/month to attach to the platform and HLX to each member in our blind-sharing pool that matches their search criteria. The data is de-identified before it is shared to protect our members privacy.

Data Consumers must also bring compute and storage to the Helix3 platform.

Members can participate in our blind data sharing pool by allowing data consumers to purchase their de-identified data, or they can share to matching data consumers directly. Members do not pay a fee to participate in data sharing.

Sponsors: Sponsors are entities who issue challenges that would support health initiatives (Heart, Diabetes, Lungs). They can be employers looking to better their employees health, clinical trials  rewording for treatment adherence, or a members sponsoring a loved one to quit smoking or lose weight.

Sponsors use third party verification to validate goal achievement building a new level of trust way beyond 10,000 steps.

Helix³ members will have incentive to connect their patient portals for increased HLX rewards potential. Members will be able to crowd-sponsor a challenge for up to 10 members for free.

All other sponsors can access the platform and sponsor the FitFlow Challenge for free.

Sponsors will require a paid membership in order to create custom challenges. We will have 3 packages based on number of participants and options to customize the plan ranging from $9.99 to $79.99 per month.

Sponsors also require HLX to pay participants in their challenges creating demand. The chart below illustrates revenue projects based on the number of sponsors under subscription.

Each of the four participants create a supply and demand for HLX tokens within the ecosystem. People get active to avoid top chronic illnesses, sponsors lower claims reimbursements, and merchants/FitFlow providers have new ways to address a targeted audience. It’s a win/win for everyone.

The Helix Twin app itself provides an additional source of revenue for Helix³. Available in-app purchases will provide additional revenue. In-app purchases will be tied to additional modules developed. (Please see Section 8: Future Use Cases)

Members are incentivized in HLX to share their de-identified data, creating a vast resource of health and wellness data which will drive additional research and innovation participants to the ecosystem.

Go to Market Plan

Helix3 is positioning itself as a Decentralized Health Management Platform that brings meaningful use to the information. We are taking a different approach than most of the other healthcare blockchain products by focusing on the patient and consumer.

This is the first time in history, that this amount of personal health information is available to use, which supports our end goal of data consolidation, sovereignty, and meaningful use.

We have a 3 phase go-to-market plan.

1. Consumer Adoption
2. Data Consumer Expansion
3. Market Expansion – Innovation

Phase 1: Consumer Adoption

Our first goal is to launch an app, called Helix. The app with be available for iOS and Android phones. The app will allow users to connect IoMT devices (over 300 at launch), and patient portals (covering 80% of the US). The data will be synchronized with Helix, and a more secure copy of the data will, over time, be transferred to the Helix app.

We will incentivize our members for connecting their IoMT devices and patient portals and sharing the de-identified data. Helix3 will fund the first challenge available on the platform called the FitFlow Challenge with 10,000,000 HLX (equivalent of $800,000 USD at public sale).

To create incentive to earn more HLX tokens, a sweepstakes will be created containing prizes packages worth more than $2,500 USD retail each. Helix3 will release a new sweepstake every 2 weeks, pulling from trending products and services related to the nine wellness markets identified as merchants.

Users can enter into the sweepstake using HLX earned through sharing their data making the first number of entries free. 1 HLX for 1 entry, can enter as many times as the want.

The sweepstake has some gamification attributes to promote new member referrals.

• • Draw Trigger: Number of entries that automatically triggers the contest end and winner
  • Countdown Trigger: The number of entries after which the trigger countdown starts. Ours will be 50% of Draw Trigger
  • Trigger Countdown: The number of days after the Countdown Trigger is reach when the contest ends and a winner chosen.

Users will be rewarded for improving their health and learn to engage with the platform.

Building on the growing number of users on the platform, we will begin to attract merchants for HealthOns and Sponsors. We will ensure that our members have a wide variety of choice for their HLX earnings.

Members are incentivized to reach the countdown trigger to improve odds of winning. They will invite friends to the platform, who must connect their patient portals and devices to help trigger the countdown timer. This will build our data and member counts preparing for phase 2.

Phase 2: Data Consumer Expansion

This phase will focus on two methods for data sharing.

• • Blind Sharing: In this monetization model, members join sharing pools and connect to consumers who have agreed to sharing their data. Data Consumers search for matches to their criteria without ever looking at data, and pay members directly for using their data.
  • Selective Sharing: In this monetization model, members sell data directly to Data consumers based on matches for their available data. Members pick and choose whom they grant access, and how much HLX is being offered.

Helix3 will continue to add data sources and integrations throughout all phases of our go to market.

Phase 3: Market Expansion – Innovation

This phase will be supported by revenues built throughout phase 1 and 2 and drive innovation in mHealth applications, preventative deep-learning, advanced Telehealth kiosks and more.

Helix3 has a long list on initiatives that we will drive in this phase; however, we will release an open API and SDK to encourage community development on top of the platform.

There are a number of healthcare blockchain companies out there, so we wanted to take the opportunity to explain why we are different, by showing how we will disrupt healthcare by introducing a healthcare blockchain platform that will change the way the masses interact with their personal health information.

What is a disruptive technology?

According to Wikipedia “In business, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances.”

From a more fundamental perspective, I prefer a version of Clayton Christensen’s idea that disruptive technology allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market, access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.

A great example is the computer. When computers were invented, mainframes were the size of buildings and cost millions of dollars. Only the very rich could afford to have one. Eventually the PC was introduced, disrupting that market by making a less expensive version that eventually became accessible to almost everyone on the planet.

The the smart phone disrupted the market again by making even smaller computers with added utility accessible to the world. I myself have 4 phones and 1 LTE connected tablet in my home. By comparison, I only have 2 computers which I waited almost 8yrs to update. My smartphone on the other hand, I am no more than 2yrs between upgrades. Smartphones have been so disruptive, that iPhone revenue is more than five times that of Mac computers.

How does this translate to Helix3 being a disruptive healthcare blockchain company?

Today, personal health information is controlled by a few healthcare companies who have way too much control over it. They put it at risk daily, make access to your personal health information difficult to view and share, and they even make money off this data for which you see none.

To disrupt healthcare, Helix3 will build a data consolidator for consumer (Fitbit, AppleWatch, Insulin pumps), clinical (EMR, ePHI), and genomic (23andme) data, creating a secure version that you control. Having a complete view of your personal health information enables us to bring disruptive change in healthcare with precision preventive medicine, clinical diagnostic support tools (CDST), and even personal health AI applications.

Using the consolidated health data will enable Helix3 to deliver an mHealth application that will change the way healthcare is delivered and wellness rewards are achieved. Applications can offer health and wellness rewards using any combination of your EMR and activity data, including a new wave of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT, an evolution of IoT) to drive global, national, and regional health initiatives.

We will apply deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to create a personal digital health assistant that uses your genomic data and personal health information to recommend wellness rewards that will motivate you to live a long, and healthy life.

Existing providers will be able to deliver the most effective and timely healthcare, having access to a complete picture of their patients profile, and using innovative products and services that improve healthcare outcomes and lowering the cost of delivering services.

Helix3 will also power a new wave of advanced TeleHealth Centers that will leverage IoMT under the control of remote of a license physicians, enabling near real-time testing, results, diagnostics, and prescriptions. When data is allowed to flow in a secure and trust way, the applications become endless.

These applications will bring new technology to the masses, fulfilling a large component of a disruptive healthcare technology.

The Helix3 mHealth application that will lead the way in healthcare disruption by enabling our members to monetize their data by connecting with data consumers (research, clinical trials) who will pay for anonymized data using our cryptocurrency HLX. Members join sharing pools and are paid HLX when they data is used by a data consumer. Members can also search for data consumers that match the data in their digital twin, and selectively sell access to their data. In this healthcare blockchain use case, all shared data is de-identified or anonymized so that patient identity is protected. Access to private health information requires a different level of permissions.

HLX can be spent in our marketplace which contain health and wellness products members use frequently saving them money. Helix3 will also create sweepstakes for big ticket packages (e.g. Pelotons, Wellness Tourism packages, Healthy Meal Plans) to raise the stakes a little, and drive further participation even after specific health goals are met.

Members access the platform using a free mHealth application they will download from all major mobile app stores. Helix3 and the community will deliver subscription based services to members to allow future expansion and use of the platform.

Helix3 envisions employee wellness plans and even medical insurance companies to create their own reward programs incentivizing healthy behavior. There are numerous studies that link employee wellness to increased productivity and lower insurance premiums and Helix3 will provide a platform that will be much more difficult to game than any option available today.

Helix3 is the definition is a disruptive technology regardless of wether you use the Wikipedia or the Clayton Christensen definition. We will bring about disruptive change in healthcare while fixing some of the major symptoms of the poor health of the global healthcare system. In doing so, we will become one of the most successful healthcare blockchain startups in 2018-19.