The patient as courier
Today a patient becomes the integration layer their health system lacks — hand-carrying paper referrals between a rural clinic and a district hospital, re-registering at every counter, repeating every test. Systems that cannot talk to each other push the cost of that failure onto the sickest people.
The rail
A shared, consent-based health rail provides three open components:
- Verifiable identity — a patient can prove who they are without carrying a folder.
- A consent ledger — the patient authorises exactly who sees what, and can revoke it.
- A record exchange — any accredited clinic, pharmacy or hospital can pull history and continue care.
The patient carries a code, not a folder.
Why health first
Health has the clearest human stakes, an anchor problem-owner in the ministry, and a design that generalises: identity, consent and exchange are the same primitives every other sector needs. Prove them here and the fast-follow sectors inherit the pattern.