Medifi - bostonhacks 2017 submission

My team's bostonhacks 2017 submission which won the healthcare/wellness solution prize. We submitted the beginnings of a decentralized application (DApp) to share Medical Documents securely.

Code

Just go to the repo here. Also be sure to check out the demo video!

Tools

Our Pitch to the Judges: The problem - The Solution

The Problem

In the United States, accessing one's own medical records can be a timely and frustrating process. It can take 30 days to gain access to medical records and often the request for access is denied improperly. Even if access is gained it can be unreasonable to search through and manage the thick stack of papers. This is a process known for its incredibly inefficient and cumbersome steps - there is clearly much room for improvement. There have been attempts to digitize medical records and other similar sensitive data using traditional Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 technologies, but these have fallen short. For example, there have been cases of staff abusing their adminstrational access to patient records. Traditional databases continue to be the subject of hacks as we have recently seen with the Equifax hack and the ransomware attacks plaguing unsecure databases. With a database acting as a single point of failure it seems this problem cannot be resolved unless a nontraditional approach to data storage is explored.

The Solution & Medifi

Web 3.0 has brought with it a potential solution for the problem detailed above. Medifi's solution has leveraged these emerging technologies to create a decentralized file sharing network. This means there is no longer a single point of failure for hackers to exploit. The data itself is secured using SHA256 in a Merkel DAG data structure and users can access the data using the hashes of the SHA256 encryption traced with the help of the Ethereum Blockchain and smart contracts. This means that data can be added and viewed with ease and be stored completely securely. It can potentially store any medical records securely. The medical documents are uploaded by your doctor or other trusted medical professional. On a high level, this application can be used to share sensitive medical documents in a secure and accessible way. This means that you will no longer have to wait thirty days to access your own medical records and sharing your medical records with trusted sources will be easier and more secure than ever before.

The team