A Bit Cryptic’s Chief Editor, Dang, is here in Washington, DC, interviewing folks in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
Today, we’re catching up with Yidu Wang, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, a healthcare product manager and blockchain enthusiast. He chats about healthcare industry challenges and opportunities to leverage blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT).
We caught up on Yidu’s background and how he first got involved in crypto. Just like most folks in this space, Yidu first ventured into the space because of the price actions but later pivoted to something more longstanding.
“I first learned about bitcoin from my MBA class. My statistics modeling professor mentioned buying her first bitcoin for about $300. I was quite astonished about how expensive it was. I did not buy into the legitimacy of cryptocurrency until 2017. That’s when I really started to research crypto and the underlying technology (i.e. blockchain). I was one of those people who came in for the price and stayed for the technology.”
Being in the nation’s capital, we are curious about Yidu’s perspective of the DC crypto/blockchain scene as a local.
“In my opinion it is a pretty tight-knit and vibrant community with many great thought leaders. Because of our prime location, we are more focused on the regulation side of things in crypto compared to west coast which is more tech-savvy.
Yidu is a healthcare product manager by day with comprehensive experience with solving complex challenges in healthcare. His newly acquired knowledge in crypto intersects nicely with his healthcare chops and gives him a unique perspective of this space.
When asked about the pain points in the healthcare market and how can blockchain/DLT be part of that solution, Yidu said: “One of the biggest challenges in healthcare is the fragmented nature of various stakeholders’ data systems and the lack of interoperability among them. The dearth of usable common standards and dependency on legacy systems make it difficult to implement the EHR tools that are designed to foster interoperability. Blockchain serves as a great potential solution to this problem. The underpinning of quality healthcare, more than anything else, lies on the incorruptible data to provide single source of truth on patients’ care status. Blockchain could be the solution to this conundrum.”
He went on to provide several use cases of blockchain in healthcare. He referenced to Medical Chain, a U.K based blockchain team which aims at giving patients control of their own health data while incentivizing providers to participate in the eco-system using MedTokens. In addition to consumer-facing projects, a pilot study co-sponsored by Optum, Humana and United healthcare to put provider directory on a blockchain is expected to reveal results in Fall 2018.
All of these projects are meant to realign the incentives of various stakeholders in healthcare industry, reduce the influence of middle men (if not remove them altogether), and ensure the integrity of data being transmitted. “These features fit right into the traits of a blockchain- That’s why blockchain can be so powerful in solving these puzzles in healthcare. ” Yidu commented.
In addition to evangelizing emerging technologies in healthcare, Yidu taps into the resources available to strengthen his technical skills. He is currently going through the Ethereum development training with the ConsenSys Academy. We are curious as to what was that like and how he will use those skills in a project.
Yidu commented that he found it to be a self-paced but very organized program which requires self-discipline and foundational knowledge of programming. Although he is not planning to pivot into an Ethereum developer after receiving the certificate, he is looking to utilize the skills he learned in real life project. “My goal is to understand how the developers communicate with each other so that I can speak their ‘language’ and translate my project vision into understandable and actionable items. ”
Lastly, we chatted about Yidu’s projections about the crypto market in the next few years. Although the current market is down, Yidu remains upbeat about the long term outlook of the space: “We will see more adoption in the enterprise environment, whether it’s healthcare, financial services, supply chain and other industries. Hopefully the market will correct itself by washing out the scams and bad actors. Institutional money will flow in which provides more stability to price actions.”
Using an economic concept promulgated in the Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, Yidu believes that the short term greed and negative will be overcome by long term potential of bitcoin and its underlying technology: “People acting with low time preference will eventually win out in this digital money revolution. ”
Interview Video: https://www.facebook.com/abitcryptic/videos/500888403666314/
Credits:
Interviewer by: Dang
Guest: Yidu Wang, Healthcare Product Manager/Blockchain Practitioner
Follow us:
Medium, Steemit, @keepitcryptic
Podcast: iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher
