Singapore/Eschborn - Ocean Protocol is partnering with Zühlke, a service provider for innovation projects, technology and business expertise. The goal of the collaboration is to co-create solutions for pharma, medtech and life science companies that facilitate an open health data economy without losing control over the data. While the technological basis for these solutions is Ocean Protocol’s own decentralized data exchange protocol, Zühlke will provide expertise in evaluating and implementing innovation projects.
Shared Vision of the Healthcare EcosystemStefan Grasmann, Head of Competence Center and member of the board at Zühlke Engineering GmbH: "We have a shared vision of the healthcare ecosystem as a sector, which has a significant potential for AI but is hampered by the sensitivity of health data. Together with Ocean Protocol we aim to create solutions that allow the usage of this data that is fair and safe for all involved parties.” Razvan Olteanu, Founding Team Member at Ocean Protocol and COO at BigchainDB, adds: “Big Tech companies are already collecting and using huge amounts of health data without compensating their owners. We would like to create a sustainable and transparent alternative.”According to Razvan Olteanu, “Ocean Protocol wants to kickstart an open data economy by breaking down data silos and equalizing access to data for all, creating a marketplace for health data”. For Stefan Grasmann, the topic revolves around one central aspect: “To really ensure data privacy, the patient should keep full control over the access to their health data and be able to answer the following questions: Who can access my data to which degree and what is it used for?”
Start with lighthouse projects
Both companies, Ocean Protocol and Zühlke, see great potential for a decentralized marketplace for healthcare data. However, for Razvan Olteanu this is no sure-fire success: “Just because an idea sounds good does not mean that it can be realized. You have to start with smaller projects and then scale up. That’s why we have chosen Zühlke as our partner: They have the business know-how to identify and challenge business models and have the track record of implementing innovative projects across the entire healthcare sector.”The next steps in the joint efforts of Ocean Protocol and Zühlke will be workshops to develop use cases and tailored offerings followed by a joint approach to potential customers. Stefan Grasmann: “Ocean Protocol offers a very promising technology for all cases where different parties want to share data without losing control over it. We are confident that we can create first business opportunities together with interested cus-tomers as early as in 2020.”Disclaimer: Ocean Protocol and Zühlke are two separate companies that will continue to act as separate legal entities.
