Increasingly in the US, people have to take responsibility for their health information. Simultaneously, medical providers must make patient data available. MedRec fully decentralizes access rights via an Ethereum blockchain, thereby giving patients control over record distribution. Our model is the World Wide Web: MedRec is a network. Patients and providers operate nodes that authorize others to retrieve data. It is a basis for a generally useful permissioning system.
There is no website or central repository of permissions. Instead, patients and medical records originators establish a relationship and based on that, the patient creates smart contracts that other members of the network can use to authorize access to a record database. The parameters of contracts are kept in a blockchain that is maintained by all member providers/originators who at the same time use those contracts to provide access to their database. The patient/user contracts themselves are held by the patients in a wallet that resides on their device[s] as an app. This app is secure and recoverable in case the physical device is lost or damaged.
For a full overview, technical documentation, and updates, visit the project's website.