Health Finance (HealthFi): Revolutionising Well-Being Over Web3

Does anyone remember how our favourite Popeye the Sailor used to gorge on cans and cans of spinach and feel super powerful?

Spinach used to be the source of Popeye’s prowess, making him formidable in any physical challenge.

In many ways, Popeye’s can of spinach signified the importance of health in our childhoods.

Of late, the lazy lifestyle induced by desk jobs and unhealthy diets has made generations unfit.

Following a healthy lifestyle means following a few scientific principles regarding diet, supplements and exercise.

The Web3 revolution has also made radical inroads in the health sector, with a decentralised approach to wellness called HealthFi. 

What is HealthFi?

• HealthFi is the fusion of health and decentralised finance (DeFi) in a Web3 ecosystem.
   
• It is a step in the direction of a decentralised approach towards health management where health benefits meet monetary or non-monetary benefits.

During the Web2 era, the intersection of health and technology heralded very significant benefits such as optimised digitalisation, management and deployment of wellness programmes. Patients were connected to doctors online, a boon for those based in remote areas.

Nonetheless, the control lied with centralised bodies such as government health departments, global healthcare companies etc. Centralised control also carried the inherent risks of system hacks, data leaks, privacy violations etc.

HealthFi involves a radical imagination of the health sector in a Web3 ecosystem where patients themselves have complete control over their medical data and can better manage how their wellness routines are maintained. In turn, patients are rewarded as per their progress in the wellness programmes.

HealthFi not only addresses the shortcomings of healthcare in Web2 such as hacks, data leaks, privacy violations etc., it makes healthcare user-centric, secure and decentralised. 

What Does HealthFi Offer?

A decentralised approach to healthcare, HealthFi offers key benefits to both doctors and patients in a radically different way from other traditional healthcare systems.

• Remote Meeting & Prescription: With HealthFi, a patient can meet a doctor online, share the details of the ailments, and get prescriptions. Medical data is stored in a decentralised manner, making it secure against hacks so that your relationship with your doctor remains trustful. 
  
   
• Cryptocurrency Payments: HealthFi is particularly beneficial for doctors who see patients from countries across the world and find it difficult to manage their international payments. Crypto payments can be executed across the globe. However, make sure that your financial transactions are compliant with local laws.
  
   
• Virtual Well-being: HealthFi allows patients to take part in virtual wellness programmes where they can become parts of communities aspiring for well-being. The Web3 facility brings the communities of doctors and patients together in a way that individuals from across the globe sitting remotely can become members of decentralised online wellness programmes.
  
   
• Customised Care: HealthFi can provide customised care to patients where diagnosis, treatment and wellness regime can be executed on a blockchain-enabled Web3 platform. Given the variety of diseases ailing our population, HealthFi is an excellent medium to give customised patient care.

Use Cases of HealthFi

It is high time that we look at the common use cases of HealthFi in how healthcare is realised in a better way.

Data Management: 

HealthFi lets you control your health and medical data directly instead of it being stored on a remote server. We must understand its importance because centralised data management is often highly vulnerable to hacks.

A HealthFi database gives each patient a unique set of keys to access health details so that the patient has complete ownership and control of their medical data.

It stores information in a way that is secure and easily available. This way, the communication between the healthcare provider and the patient is managed in a systematic way.

Metaverse Facility

Advanced HealthFi applications also leverage the metaverse technology to offer enhanced medical services in a remote setting. A metaverse is a virtual universe created with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) on a blockchain platform.

In a metaverse, a doctor and a patient can interact virtually in a remote setting. Advanced applications even let a highly skilled doctor diagnose and treat patients virtually (of course, a local doctor needs to attend to the patient).

In addition, medical studies can become more interactive as trainees can enter a metaverse where patients, instruments, labs etc. can be created virtually and experimented with.  

Fake Medicine Scrutiny

The healthcare sector is dealing with the problem of fake or counterfeits medicines for a long time. These fake medicines appear a lot like genuine medicines but can prove to be disastrous or even fatal for patients.

A blockchain entry of each medicine ensures that anybody with access to the blockchain ledger can tell a fake medicine from a genuine one. For now, the exercise isn't in use, but HealthFi applications are considering employing the use case. 

HealthFi Applications

The leading HealthFi applications that have grabbed the attention of users as of late are:

• HealthFi: It is a web3 fitness application that focuses on fitness and wellness. It encourages a fitness regime consisting of skipping, jumping, cycling, etc. that is rewarded with a crypto economy.
  
   
• Vyvo Finance: A decentralised health application, Vyvo Finance lets you earn rewards by sharing fitness data to access different services.
  
   
• Inpersona: One of the most exciting HealthFi apps, Inpersona allows you to mine cryptocurrency using your heartbeats.
   

Pros and Cons of Health Finance

Let us have a quick look at the benefits and drawbacks surrounding HealthFi so that we can analyse how far we have come and how far we need to go. 

As we can see, there are several benefits due to the intervention of HealthFi but still, challenges remain. 

Frequently Asked Questions

a. What is HealthFi?

HealthFi is a decentralised approach towards health management where health benefits meet monetary or non-monetary benefits on a blockchain platform in a Web3 ecosystem.  

b. How does HealthFi differ from a traditional digital healthcare system?

In a traditional digital healthcare system in a Web2 ecosystem, control of the data lied with centralised systems with little user autonomy.

HealthFi, being a Web3 solution, gives patients complete access and control over their medical data.

c. What are the main use cases of HealthFi?

• Data management and privacy on a blockchain
• Remote medical facilities, including diagnosis and treatment
• Metaverse facilities for virtual, interactive settings for medical treatment and training
• Scrutiny of fake or counterfeit medicines  

d. What are the main benefits of HealthFi?

• Decentralised, patient-centric system
• Remote treatment and training
• Personalised patient care
• Secure data management

e. What are the challenges that HealthFi faces?

• Inaccessibility due to high-tech system
• Scalability concerns
• Regulatory concerns  

The Way Forward...

HealthFi underlines the transition of a digital healthcare system from Web2 to Web3 where patients, instead of centralised bodies such as governments and hospitals, have complete control over medical data.

Its key purpose is creating a decentralised healthcare system where patients and doctors can interact in a virtual setting, enabled by technologies such as blockchain, AI, VR, AR etc.

Imagine a universe where a patient is sitting in a remote corner of Nepal and a doctor from an Australian clinic can treat her in a virtual setting. Though we haven't quite reached there yet but diagnosis and treatment are still possible, given a local doctor is present with the patient.

Personalised healthcare lies at the centre of HealthFi where wellness is organised in a decentralised manner. Its goal is to bridge the gap between healthcare facilities, medical fraternity and patients where the tyranny of distance shouldn't matter.

Data privacy and virtual interaction, enabled with a cryptocurrency-based economy, make up the primary model of HealthFi.

Challenges of scalability and regulation remain but healthcare is a public function which most governments and organisations cannot overlook. It will take time, but we expect HealthFi to develop and expand in the next few years.