The Vitalis Network:

Private Decentralized form

of Medical Data Storage
and Interaction

February 2018
Abstract
The major advantages of blockchain based cryptocurrencies are the independent
verifiability of transactions, the anonymity that they allow, and the speed of transactions
of data. Blockchains can also process transactions at much lower cost than banks and
credit card companies, as well as various other data centers. Blockchain technology
allows implementation for multiple other uses beyond the obvious use of a decentralized
form of a currency. One of these uses is in the form of a decentralized network allowing
for the transmission of medical data to select hospitals and practices. This would be
implemented on a need-to-know basis and restricted from use by a private key held by
the client or holding company, or by an altogether private blockchain network that
interconnects domestic and international hospitals for extremely easy use.

Introduction

A major problem in the medial industry is the problem of lack of information in their
patients, such as name, age, height, and past medical data such as blood pressure and
weight. Not only that, but vital information such as blood type, prior prescriptions, and
allergies are critical for the identification and assistance of the individual. It’s estimated
that tens of thousands of people die daily, not because of the lack of ability to treat the
individual, but rather the fact that the healthcare worker lacks the information to assist
the patient. According to sourcelife.org1:
 Approximately 38 percent of the US national population is eligible to donate blood
 Less than 10 percent of the US national population donates blood
 Each year, 4.5 million Americans would die without lifesaving blood transfusions
 Every two seconds, someone needs blood in the world
 The average bone marrow transplant requires 120 units of platelets and
approximately 20 units of red blood cells
 Severe burn victims require approximately 20 units of plasma during their treatment
 Children being treated for cancer, premature infants and children having heart
surgery need blood and platelets from donors of all types
 Anemic patients need blood transfusions to increase their iron levels
 Cancer, transplant and trauma patients, and patients undergoing open-heart
surgery, require platelet transfusions to survive
 Some patients with complications from severe sickle cell disease, an inherited
disease that affects more than 80,000 people in the United States (98 percent of
whom are of African descent), receive blood transfusions every month – up to four
units at a time
 Over 4.5 million Americans die yearly due to a lack of blood
Although these facts are calculated in America alone, the concept still stands: the lack
of medical information instantly and freely available is an international medical
emergency. For example, with trauma victims, the lack of O- blood available causes
many high-traffic hospitals to lose patients due to the lack of universal blood available. If
said hospital had access to a network that allowed instantaneous retrieval of medical
information for the client, their blood type would be readily available for use by
healthcare professionals. Thus, our team introduces the Vitalis Network.

The Vitalis Network:

The essential idea of the Vitalis Network is to create a private and decentralized
network consisting of nodes among hospitals in many different countries. These nodes
would be interconnected across the globe, allowing for any client to walk into a hospital
and have their information, and past histories of such information, such as name,
birthdate, height, weight, blood type, prescriptions, and other vital information will be
available at the blink of an eye.

This would be set up with the Vitalis Network. Various nodes, installed by the Vitalis
team in each supporting hospital or practice, will function as a node in the network,
downloading and supporting the blockchain ledger.

This blockchain ledger will store each patient’s information. The Vitalis Network will
allow integration of each node into the ledger in the form of recalling and editing
personal information.

The element that holds the Vitalis Network together is a blockchain ledger that records
the transactions and client information. Proof of work is the gold standard to guarantee
the integrity of blockchains but has many problems. Proof of work is costly and would
not easily scale up to thousands of transactions per second. Whether to use some
modification of proof of work, proof of stake, or some other approach is not clear. This is
a problem for all blockchains and many startups are working on better alternatives.
Whatever best practice emerges to create trustworthy large-scale ledgers would serve
the purposes of the Vitalis Network.

How The Vitalis Network Works

1. A client creates an account on the Vitalis Network. This account serves as a
modified “wallet” where the client or node manager will have access to inputting the
initial information required to open an account. This account creation will cost a
dynamic amount of VITAL depending on current market value and current amount of
VITAL in circulation. A private key will be assigned to the client.

2. The patient, or node manager, will input all information of the client into the account
itself, such as name, age, weight, height, blood type, etc.

3. A node is created and approved only by the development team of the Vitalis Network
to maintain the private integrity of the Vitalis Network. This ledger will be public, but
raw data will be impossible to discern due to the nature of the Vitalis Network with
private keys allowing access to individual accounts.

4. A payment on behalf of the client (or his/her health insurance) will be issued to
stimulate the creation of the account with a fee charged to the node owner in VITAL.

5. In order to open a client’s account, a small dynamic fee of VITAL will be used as a
form of payment for transferring and recalling the information, and paying for the
processing power used, like a mining fee being paid.

6. Various nodes connected among the Vitalis Network will concurrently store all the
client accounts on the Vitalis Network. When another is made, the blockchain will
update like any other blockchain system, and the nodes will maintain that current
network for usability among the Node network.

7. In order to maintain the network, a simple mining reward system may be

implemented onto the network to incentivize outside investors to invest GPU power
to the network. This will decrease network congestion in times of heavy use.
What the Vitalis Network Aims to
Accomplish

The Vitalis Network aims to create a private, decentralized, and secure network for
instantaneous (matter of seconds) access to patient information that doesn’t depend on
the manual and lengthy transfers of information among countries. Currently, many
medical institutions use outdated databases that are both prone to security breaches
and are very slow. Not only that, but many databases are central to the hospital or
select few hospitals within a few hundred-mile radius. With the use of the Vitalis
Network, this problem will exist no longer. Implementation of the Vitalis Network among
large medical institutions will allow near-instant access to user’s information. Whether
it’s in New York City or Bangkok, if the hospital is authorized and functioning on the
Vitalis Network, your data will be available for use by medical professionals, instantly.

Furthermore, the Vitalis Network will eventually allow for more than just patient
information to be available by medical professionals. Implementation of things such as
MRI scans, protein testing, and many other applications will be available for researchers
interested in comparing scans and experimental data in an instant. Now, these medical
professionals will have the power of the Vitalis Network at their fingertips, allowing them
to learn, compare, and interact with information they otherwise would’ve lacked without
this revolutionary technology.

Potential Problems

The concept is still to be completely explored, however, the only real problem with the
implementation of the Vitalis Network is the fact that medical data is sensitive, and must
be secured. The Vitalis team aims to solve this problem with a series of easy-to-use
private keys and potentially an app to hold a QR code, or RFID chip card, with the
private key on it. This would solve the problem of required memorization of the private
key by the patient. Better options are currently being explored by the Vitalis team.
The legal details also must be explored in terms of storage of patient data, and what
entity “posses” the information. The team is currently exploring exactly what we need to
do in order to legally and efficiently incorporate the Vitalis Network into the medical field.

Conclusion

The Vitalis Network outlined in this paper solves the problem of the lack of patient
information available in times of medical crisis. Currently, there is no network or system
for both quick access of medical information, nor international access of foreign medical
information that is quick and easy. The Vitalis Network aims to bridge the gap between
hospitals around the world by creating a decentralized network of patient data that can
be instantly accessed by medical professionals. A bump in the road to full
implementation is private key access and potential legal issues, but these problems are
foreseen to be understood and solved very soon. Overall, the outlook of the Vitalis
Network looks extremely bright. The Vitalis Network will be able to save countless lives
by allowing for easier access to patient data, of which is vital for the survival of
thousands every day.
Useful Links:
Many of these links relate to the Vitalis Network in that many of the problems raised the
Vitalis Network will fix. If you’re interested in the potential impacts of the Vitalis Network,
the team urges you to read on and explore for yourself just how revolutionary this
product is.

(this list will be updated as the whitepaper is updated)

http://www.lifesource.org/donate-blood/facts/1
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001438
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21893927
http://www.wcpt.org/node/33001
https://www.healthcatalyst.com/5-reasons-healthcare-data-is-difficult-to-measure
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/745477
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/top-10-challenges-of-big-data-analytics-in-healthcare
http://www.zdnet.com/article/australian-governments-recklessness-with-medical-data-is-
symptom-of-deeper-problems/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hidden-trade-in-our-medical-data-why-we-should-
worry/
https://tcf.org/content/report/strengthening-protection-patient-medical-data/