HPEC Frequently asked questions:
What is the HPEC Mission?
To empower the physician community to provide the best care to patients- free from third-party interference.
What is the HPEC Vision?
A future healthcare ecosystem optimized through open access trusted space for the physician community to connect to the patients who need them the most easily. Restoring privacy and trust. Enhancing transparency for all.
What’s the process? How does it work?
We have a database of all recently retired and practicing physicians. Our onboarding process is easy because all you need is:
1.) an email and phone number
2.) your NPI number
3.) a government issued id. While we are in beta we are for US physicians only.
If you’ve ever trained in a US residency program you are automatically allowed in. We verify your identity with a government ID and facial recognition to make sure it is actually you who is claiming your profile. You can then enter groups with other physicians in your state and specialty, and connect with colleagues you know. There is much more to share but that is only for the community, so get on boarded now while spots are still open to see what else we have to offer.
How will HPEC help with patient privacy rights?
Medical records used to be a tool for physicians to keep records for themselves and to communicate with each other. Today they have morphed into data gathering surveillance and billing tools for insurance companies and health systems. With your HPEC digital identity you are empowered to interact with and maintain patient records with systems you know and trust. When you control how you authenticate yourself digitally you are empowered to create privacy preserving record keeping tools removing any dependency created by third party systems that were not designed to serve your needs or the needs of your patients.
How will HPEC empower doctors?
Our national and regional medical associations have failed us, in part because the systems they use to organize and represent practicing doctors are not designed to keep up with the rapid evolution of our practice or with the technologies being adopted. Decentralized identity protocols provides direct secure communication solutions for practicing doctors. With decentralized technologies governance can now be immediate and direct, and is no longer dependent on a representative democracy or our elected peers. When you control how you authenticate yourself digitally you are empowered to have a direct say in decision making about protocols and patient care. Information overload can be avoided when experts have the power to rapidly assess and reflect on new incoming information, sharing their assessments with their peers immediately, As advancements accelerate and we can more rapidly disseminate important life saving information and the peer review process will be more relevant and accessible for actual practicing physicians. With your HPEC digital identity you are also empowered to interact with and maintain referral networks of physician colleagues you know and trust.
Is HPEC Safe?
Unlike centralized platforms where you have no control, HPEC is built on open decentralized identity standards. Although we are in beta and things are still in development the HPEC wallet was designed so you can fully own and control your information. HPEC is also collectively owned and designed by hundreds of physicians and we have built and designed this for us and for our future. HPEC is the most private and physician centric platform in existence.
What does HPEC stand for again?
Humanitarian Physicians Empowerment Community. HPEC is not an organization or an association, but it is a physician-run and majority physician-owned mission-driven company. We are building the future of secure physician and patient interactions, restoring privacy and trust for physicians and patients.
What can HPEC do for me today?
If you are a licensed practicing physician in the US, HPEC allows you to create a wallet and securely store copies of your credentials. It occurs through a secure self-sovereign cloud agent that only you control.
Once your medical license is uploaded, it is checked for validity against your government-issued ID and against your state's public website, you are allowed entry into a private physician group. The goal of HPEC is to automate this process in the future and enable individual physicians to receive digital credentials from the issuing institution directly into their wallet. Still, the verification process necessitates a manual check during the MVP stage and until we reach that goal.
Through your HPEC identity, you can have end-to-end encrypted conversations with your colleagues and participate in group conversations with other credentialed physicians. The network is a verified and trusted network of physicians only, which doesn't exist anywhere else.
How does the physician network work?
The HPEC network is composed of the social network and the professional network.
The social network is a censorship-resistant community space that deploys a cryptographic protocol of self-moderation, meaning the physician community moderates itself; there is no central authority deciding what is and is not allowed to be posted.
The HPEC professional network creates an opportunity for individuals to own their professional brand, build and maintain their professional reputation, and choose who to allow into their network. Because HPEC is decentralized, this gives the physician direct control over their professional data and reputation, unlike any other platform out there. Your network is yours and yours alone and will allow you to refer patients only to physicians you know and trust in the future without being influenced or monitored by employers, insurance networks, or other third parties.
What are the potential business models and revenue streams?
We are currently pre-revenue. Initial revenue streams are projected to be from credentialing services and physician career opportunity advertisement and recruitment. Later, physicians may choose to be paid on the platform for their services and access to their data. HPEC cant access or sell physicians' practice behavioral data because their data is owned by them directly. Still, we will create an opportunity for individual physician to quickly and securely share their data in an organized and streamlined way if they so choose.
What might HPEC be able to do for me in the future?
We aim to be a complete decentralized identity solution for practicing physicians, where practicing physicians directly control their professional destiny.
We are currently participating in pilot projects with credential issuing bodies such as academic medical centers and state licensing boards. The pilot projects allow these credential issuing bodies to issue verifiable digital credentials directly into the physician’s wallet. The goal is an end-to-end process that starts with graduation and credential issuance allowing physicians to share these credentials in an instantaneously trusted and permanent fashion. It will expedite and streamline the credentialing process for the lifetime of a physician’s career.
HPEC aims to provide any individual physician, group, or association of physicians to exist, communicate, and provide services in a decentralized, secure and organized way for the impending digital world.
As a complete identity solution, HPEC aims to allow physicians to vote on policy and practice, allocate resources to desired policy and practice initiatives, pay for and be paid for services, directly connect and communicate with patients, and move freely throughout the global healthcare ecosystem.
How does it work? From the perspective of Dr. McAutonomy:
Dr. McAutonomy first heard about HPEC through a friend from med school who she hadn't spoken to in a while who sent her an invite via text. Once she was on the network, she was asked to confirm that they went to medical school together, so she did. At first, Dr. McAutonomy didn't understand it. Still, after signing up, she realized being in control of her professional identity and credentials can restore her professional autonomy and reduce uncompensated administrative burdens. After a few months on the platform, she has invited 15 other physician friends and colleagues to join the network and has accumulated HPEC points for her contribution to the network.
She now
1.) Is accepting telemedicine consults through the platform
2.) quickly and easily picked up a few extra shifts at the clinic down the block, has
3.) contributed to practice guideline updates within her specialty and has
4.) found a subspecialist for one of her patients suffering from a complex issue, which is now finally being addressed by the right person.
She feels informed, engaged, and connected with her fellow colleagues. She can be a better doctor because many of the things that made her frustrated with the practice of medicine are now alleviated... The platform has brought her additional income on the side, and she is thinking about moving full-time to this model.