1. Tackling the U.S. opioid crisis using blockchain
Andrew Lee, Jen McGann,
Luis Suarez, Becca Wolfe
February 28, 2017

2. Health and social costs related to prescription opioid abuse is $55 billion each year
Why this crisis exists:
The Doctor:
The Pharmacist:
The Patient:
The Payer:
No visibility to other doctor’s prescriptions for the patient
Pain is subjective
No transparency across state lines
Cannot see prescriptions filled at other pharmacies
No time for extra diligence for each patient
Medication prescribed is very addictive
Easy to counterfeit a script
Can profit from selling drugs
Cannot see if patient has prescription filled from another insurer
If formulary changes even slightly, will not flag system
Problems exist across all the major players in the health care continuum
Efforts currently in place to curb the crisis:
The Doctor:
The Pharmacist:
The Patient:
The Payer:
Better education on prescribing habits (CMS, HHS)
Being trained to treat the consequence (addiction)
Databases available to log patient use (not mandatory and does not go across state lines)
Drugs come with a “black box” warning
Last year, the federal government asked for an additional $1B of funding
No universal, secure method of communicating prescription drug patterns across all parties

3. 01 02 03 04 05
Our solution: A decentralized database and software Datapill uses an ethereum private blockchain to track the person-prescription-medicine link
How it works:
Security: Fingerprint used to prove identity, SSN used as unique ID
Key players: Distributed among doctors, pharmacies, government and datapill, transactions validated by a trusted third party
Process: Ethereum smart contracts enable the transactions to happen
Prescription is entered into a database that every doctor and pharmacy has visibility into 2
Prescription 5
While the medicine is being consumed the patient is not allowed to buy another opioid
Doctor
Token
Patient
A doctor validates that the patient needs an opioid by giving a prescription
Prescription enables a token that is valid to be spent once in different pharmacies for specific period of time
Ethereum private blockchain that keeps track of the person-prescription-medicine link
SSN is used as the unique ID
Fingerprint is used to prove identity
Distributed among doctors, pharmacies, government and datapill
Software with the interface to the database
A trusted third party (datapill or the government) validates the transactions
A prescription enables a token that can be spent to get an opioid during a certain period of time
Ethereum smart contracts enables the transactions to happen 3 1
Pharmacy
Pharmacy validates that patient has a token, takes token in exchange for medicine and makes entry to the database 4

4. $245M revenue opportunity Contract with the federal government to build a national, government–funded blockchain
Federal
State
State mandated conversion and use of technology
Cost of technology subsidized by state and federal
Doctor
Payer
Pharmacy
$45M
$183M
$17M
10% - 25% Rx Reduction
Opioid Prescriptions1: 259M
$250 - $300 annual fee per pharmacy
Total Pharmacies3: 62K
$0.25 – $0.75 per Enrollee
Total Enrollees2: 319M
1National Institutes of Health, America’s Addiction to Opioids
2Kaiser Family Foundation, Market Share and Enrollment of Largest Three Insurers by State
3IMS Health, National Pharmacy Market Summary

5. Steps to implementation
Strong incentives across the healthcare ecosystem Datapill will serve as a shared source of truth across stakeholders
Doctor
Increased accuracy and fidelity
Transparency incentivizes ethical behavior
Pharmacy
Reduced liability and less fraudulent prescriptions filled
Increases efficiency of pharmacists
Steps to implementation
Partner with government to obtain federal approval for technology
Build and test proof of concept
Pilot program via launch in California and Florida
Educate participating stakeholders and rollout technology nationally 1
Government
Already top priority through Opioid Initiative1
Cost-savings for government-run health insurance 2 3
Payer
Cost-savings as currently bearing majority of over $55B annual cost of opioid abuse2
Patient 4
Reduced levels of addiction
Increased convenience through electronic storage of data
Provider
Immediate view into patient prescriptions, ensuring accuracy and fidelity
Transparency of blockchain incentivizes doctors to act ethically
Pharmacy
Reduced risk of liability, less fraudulent prescriptions filled
Frees up time for pharmacists to perform other revenue-generating services
Government
Already top priority for HHS through Opioid Initiative with ~$1B budget1
Cost-savings for government-run health insurance by improving prescribing practices
Payer
Currently bearing majority of cost of opioid abuse (over $55B annually2) so high cost-savings as a result of curbing abuse
Patient
- Reduced levels of addiction
Increased convenience through electronic storage of prescription data
Future state: Extend beyond opioids to all prescriptions, explore international market opportunity
1US Department of Health and Human Services, The Opioid Epidemic
2Triple Pundit, Drug Companies, Corporate Responsibility and the Prescription Opioid Crisis