Top 3 blockchain-based healthcare companies to watch in 2017

Competitors are no longer recognizable. New strategies are required. The game has changed. Today’s rules might not apply tomorrow. Learn from blockchain-based healthcare companies that are redefining the rules.

Game theory is the science of strategy. A branch of mathematics and economics that explores strategic situations across multiple stakeholders with different goals, whose actions can affect one another. Pioneering companies are changing the game with blockchain technologies. The new game of consumer interactions redefines transparency, immutability and security across industries.

New game with new players

Much progress has been made with game theory. John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s 1944 book Game Theory and Economic Behavior outlined classic game theory. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that “competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.” Game theory analyzes strategic interaction and can be applied to economics, political science and military science. In game theory, players (decision-makers) adopt strategies (complete plans of action) and receive payoffs (rewards or punishments), all of which depend on the strategies of all of the players. A strategy is a complete plan that describes the action a player will take in every circumstance that is observed.

There are many common examples of game theory that include elections, auctions, wars, the arms race, oligopolies (when a small number of companies dominate a market), certain aspects of animal behavior, the evolution of social norms and, of course, games such as the ones played for entertainment, like Pokémon GO.

If you have played the board games Monopoly, Risk or Stratego, you knew who you were playing the game against. Today, players are less obvious. Likewise, partners you wouldn’t consider yesterday might be your best avenue for a competitive advantage. Change the rules with three of the leaders in blockchain technology.

Bron.tech (Sydney, Australia)

Problem Solved: Proving identity requires sharing too much identifiable information.

Why play today’s game with yesterday’s identity solutions? Bron.tech is revolutionizing identity. The bold vision of a personally controlled digital identity platform to encompass the legal, social and psychological aspect of one’s identity. Bron.tech has three flagship interaction offerings.

  1. OWLEE is a distributed application (dapp) reputation system providing instantaneous verification, identity management and interoperability for education providers, organizations and professionals.
  2. Blockchain Digital ID, Bron.tech’s ID platform is the solution for issuance, verification and use of digital identities by leveraging cryptography and storing transaction proofs on a public or private immutable ledger (blockchain). Using multiparty computation enabled by the blockchain to share an identity.
  3. Cyph.MD is a healthcare data-sharing platform. It leverages asymmetric cryptography with a hierarchical certificate system whereby every healthcare provider can issue identity tokens to its practitioners — to securely communicate and share data across the entire healthcare network.

Gem (California, United States)

Problem Solved: Personalized care is compromised without the privacy and security of the universal infrastructure.

Concerned about the hidden cost of trust over truth? Gem fuels automation with integrity, and helps to create data, identity and logic frameworks that allow companies to share data with industries by customizing participation within a blockchain network — cross-industry applications are connecting customers to products, services and interactions. Gem offers three integrity solutions:

  1. Distributed Resource Registries to define resources managed within a blockchain.
  2. Multiparty Identity and Access Management to control access to provisioned resources for key management, e.g. manufacturing or IoT and healthcare medical records.
  3. Logic Automation using rules to streamline data interactions across companies.

IBM Blockchain on Bluemix (New York, United States)

Problem Solved: People don’t own their data.

Attempting to secure digital assets? IBM Blockchain on Bluemix digitizes transaction workflow and secures digital assets within a private virtualized environment. IBM Blockchain allows companies to manage, develop and test blockchain network technology using flexible platforms and infrastructure offerings to manage blockchain networks. The core principles make up the IBM blockchain approach: community (donated over 44,000 lines of code to the Hyperledger Project), cloud (value-based services such as high-availability, compliance and security) and client (capabilities with the building, piloting and implementing).

  1. IBM Blockchain on Bluemix enables enterprise blockchain solutions at scale.
  2. Hyperledger Project facilitates open-source, openly governed, cross-industry-enabled blockchain technology.
  3. Docker Hub is designed to help companies deploy and support distributed applications throughout the entire life cycle.

Who’s playing the game?

The application of game theory in business centers on the interactions of multiple players. Everyone understands games. Competitive pricing to labor negotiations provides similar structures to analyze possible strategies and recommend and optimal strategy for each player. Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff in a Harvard Business Review article explained how game theory shapes strategy. Whether a high-stakes game or no stakes at all, every game has five elements.

  1. Players (who’s involved).
  2. Added values (unique value of each player).
  3. Rules (structure).
  4. Tactics (how players move to shape how other players move).
  5. Scope (game boundaries).

As 2016 closes and 2017 opens, pause to reflect on the game your company is playing and the players at the table — the game might have changed, and you might not notice all the players. Explore partnerships to redefine the rules and create a new game — be the player in the game others don’t notice.

Previous articleExplaining the 21st Century Cures Act: tackling the challenge of healthcare interoperability
Next articleInnovation and emergent strategies for competitive advantage
Peter is a technology executive with over 20 years of experience, dedicated to driving innovation, digital transformation, leadership, and data in business. He helps organizations connect strategy to execution to maximize company performance. He has been recognized for Digital Innovation by CIO 100, MIT Sloan, Computerworld, and the Project Management Institute. As Managing Director at OROCA Innovations, Peter leads the CXO advisory services practice, driving digital strategies. Peter was honored as an MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award Finalist in 2015 and is a regular contributor to CIO.com on innovation. Peter has led businesses through complex changes, including the adoption of data-first approaches for portfolio management, lean six sigma for operational excellence, departmental transformations, process improvements, maximizing team performance, designing new IT operating models, digitizing platforms, leading large-scale mission-critical technology deployments, product management, agile methodologies, and building high-performance teams. As Chief Information Officer, Peter was responsible for Connecticut’s Health Insurance Exchange’s (HIX) industry-leading digital platform transforming consumerism and retail-oriented services for the health insurance industry. Peter championed the Connecticut marketplace digital implementation with a transformational cloud-based SaaS platform and mobile application recognized as a 2014 PMI Project of the Year Award finalist, CIO 100, and awards for best digital services, API, and platform. He also received a lifetime achievement award for leadership and digital transformation, honored as a 2016 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader. Peter is the author of Learning Intelligence: Expand Thinking. Absorb Alternative. Unlock Possibilities (2017), which Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times No. 1 bestseller Triggers, calls "a must-read for any leader wanting to compete in the innovation-powered landscape of today." Peter also authored The Power of Blockchain for Healthcare: How Blockchain Will Ignite The Future of Healthcare (2017), the first book to explore the vast opportunities for blockchain to transform the patient experience. Peter has a B.S. in C.I.S from Bentley University and an MBA from Quinnipiac University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He earned his PMP® in 2001 and is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Masters in Business Relationship Management (MBRM) and Certified Scrum Master. As a Commercial Rated Aviation Pilot and Master Scuba Diver, Peter understands first hand, how to anticipate change and lead boldly.