Meet Grapevine World, the Company Leading the Blockchain Revolution in Healthcare

It's been 10 years since blockchain technology was invented. Back in 2008, when the first blockchain application made its appearance—ever heard of Bitcoin?—few people believed in its potential, and even less believed that it would ever amount to anything.

Fast forward to 2018 and the invention of blockchain has sparked innovation in many fields, from green technologies to financial services, real estate, and communications, allowing both individuals and companies to create custom economies and build platforms based on the exchange of specifically-designed currencies. A technology so revolutionary, of course, couldn't go unnoticed: it was only a matter of time until tech and health giants like Pfizer, Intel, and Microsoft adopted it!

Today, we're interviewing one of the leaders in the Blockchain Revolution: Wernhard Berger.

Wernhard is the Project Lead of Grapevine World, a blockchain-based platform that will transform the way healthcare data is exchanged and utilized worldwide. Interconnecting the medical ecosystem, providing better and easier access to healthcare, and standardizing the world's use of health data are just some of Grapevine's goals… but we're getting ahead of our guest! Read on to see our full interview with Wernhard:

Hi, Wernhard! Can you tell us more about Grapevine World, and the problem that it solves?

Hi! Grapevine World addresses one of the biggest barriers to advance the digitization of healthcare – the lack of data interoperability. While nearly every other sector churns with rapid transformation brought by the insights of Big Data, healthcare stagnates, stunted by a legacy of bloated, piecemeal and uncoordinated technology development. Without data, we do not fully understand problems and diseases. And without a full understanding of the problem, we cannot formulate appropriate responses.

Solid point, but why does Grapevine need to be on the blockchain? Can you elaborate on how are you planning to use this technology?

The blockchain serves two purposes for Grapevine World: first, it acts as a facilitating, value-adding piece of infrastructure for the data exchange network. Second, it allows us to provide an incentive to participate in the network: the GVINE utility token, our own cryptocurrency. There are many distinct benefits for using the blockchain. Through it, we're able to provide a completely automated, decentralized system for participants in Grapevine World to enter into smart contracts with each other. Our platform then becomes a facilitator.

But back to the Grapevine Token (GVINE). We believe it is the key to advancing the free and secure flow of health data, acting both as mechanism and incentive. Transactions can only take place once the requisite number of GVINEs has been transferred from the provider to the solicitor. For example, if a medical university or life science company wants to crowdsource data for a clinical trial, it can search for patients matching its criteria. Once patients have agreed to participate, the data will be retrieved - but only unlocked with the transfer of GVINEs. Their data will also be automatically anonymized, so there's no privacy issue.

This seems like a great proposal for, let's say, developing nations…

Exactly! By providing the foundation of a new, data-driven and truly patient-centred health economy, Grapevine World contributes to decreasing systemic costs, increasing access to health information and services and advancing the pace of progress of medical research.

Reading the Grapevine World's whitepaper, it seems like healthcare is only the first stop in your plan. Will you be applying your business model to different industries?

A sustainable solution for standardized data exchange is desirable in every business

sector, not just health. Work on applying the IHE methodology to other verticals, like the energy sector, is already ongoing. Once established, the Grapevine Backbone can be applied to other industries such as energy, education, finance, automotive and many more. This is a stated aim of the Grapevine World, strongly supported by IHE itself and represents enormous potential for the growth of the Grapevine ecosystem.

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Speaking with Wernhard, it's easy to understand why people all around the globe are excited about the upcoming ICO (Initial Coin Offering) of Grapevine World, which will run from the 4th of July, 2018 until 15th of August, 2018. This excitement derives from the fact that, in contrast to most of the ICOs in the crypto space, Grapevine already has a working product, a partnership with three Forbes 50 corporations , approval from the Austrian Financial Market Authority, and their technology has been officially recommended by the EU. All of these points make Grapevine a solid project, likely to succeed in the eyes of the relentless blockchain community.

If you'd like to contribute and learn more about this project, you can go to Grapevine's official site (there might still be bonuses available!), or contact them directly through their social media outlets: Telegram, Facebook, and Twitter.

We'll see you soon to tell you about more innovative projects!

About WERNHARD BERGER

Grapevine World's Project Lead & Co-Founder

Wernhard Berger is the Co-Founder and ICO Lead of Grapevine World. He graduated from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and held multiple roles at startups, consultancies and multinational corporations in Vienna, London and the Silicon Valley. By establishing a Start-Up Accelerator for Cisco, Intel and Deutsche Telekom, he gained experience working at the intersection of the old and the new economy. Before his role as ICO Project Lead and Chief Business Development Officer at Grapevine World, he was leading business development and go-to-market activities for Cisco's Connected Health Interoperability Platform and Medical Data Exchange Solution, coordinating sales, marketing and product management activities across Europe and the US.

In addition to his role at Grapevine, he is a pro-bono consultant for a social enterprise, a reserve officer in the Austrian army and is currently completing his Masters at the University of Cambridge.