Whenever we run a test in medicine, we ask, "How would the result affect management?" If the result, one way or another, would not change management, the test is not worth running. The site is down so I have to go from the headline, but I'd ask the same question: how would this service affect clinical management? Can you offer an example?
> Whenever we run a test in medicine, we ask, "How would the result affect management?" Yet, a lot of unnecessary tests are run daily at every hospital I've seen. But what's worse is that often times doctors are reluctant to find out more about a patient's illness simply because they believe "it wouldn't affect treatment and it's not worth it anyway". It doesn't take a scientist to figure out why this approach can be…
My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
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Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#32From Google Cache (was going to link to it, but the text-only version has a lot of over-laid text and is hard to read): > We work with you and your doctor to figure out how advances in medical science apply to your personal health needs. Our team of researchers will do in-depth, personalized analysis to find new technologies, read scientific journals, talk to experts, and separate real medical breakthroughs from medi…
How much original research will my kaiser Insurance cover?
Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#33It's not everyday medicine where you work on simple problems following a statistical approach - an appendicitis is more likely than a Meckel diverticulum, and a simple overeating is even more likely than both.
But there are complicated cases - not very often, but that's the one I like, and that most of the passionated doctors do too. Hell - I love such cases.
A quick story - I once had the chance to make a one-in-a-million diagnosis while working in the ER of a small hospital, around 2004.
A patient presented with a psychiatric history and a psychiatric diagnosis, but somehow it didn't feel right. I had this odd feeling when talking to the patient - no psychiatric symptoms of no kind. It seemed wrong. I ordered basic blood tests (checking for hyponatremia, etc), X-rays - all normal.
It was a bit late so I asked for the patient to be served a lunch before being discharged, deeply unsatisfied. Around 10 minutes later, the patient had a new episode - but this time it was in an hospital and I did not have to rely on eyewitnesses - it looked a lot like neurological problem, not a psychiatric problem.
After another round of blood tests (I don't like it when I don't know what's happening), brain scan, etc. everything was normal. I noticed the glucose was normal - it should not be, since the patient had had an hospital lunch (in my hospital it included marmelade, and all kind of sweet things!)
So I ordered a test to check for insulinoma (I'm weird, I know - its incidence is like one-in-a-million) because it made sense - and the test was negative.
At this time, I was just a medical resident - the seniors were a bit mad at me for having spent so much time (and costly diagnostic procedures) on what was proven wrong, and what should be wrong in the first place - because it is so unfrequent. And that's not what one is expected to do in the ER (fortunately, it was late at night)
Yet I wasn't satisfied, so I asked the patient to be transferred in the university hospital neurological department for further tests. Something was happening, we didn't know what, someone had labelled the patient "crazy" (not politically correct, but truth is psychiatric patient issues are usually less investigated) but there was something.
Guess what- weeks later I got a letter, they found it was a rare variant of insulinoma that our basic test did not detect.
That's one of my best moment in life !! That day I made a difference - I removed a wrongful psychiatric diagnosis and gave the proper diagnosis. Patients with insulinoma should not get institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital.
That's the medicine I love. Fixing basic problems is the job a mechanic.
The kind of medicine I love is unfortunately not possible with the current healthcare setup - and even with usual patients, because most people don't care. They want a quick fix.
This startup idea is just great, to take care of people who want the real deal. I wish you luck!!
I'm sure you will find great clinicians who will take going as deep as the rabbit hole goes to give excellent care.
Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#34Idea is great. But I feel pricing model needs a revisit. For patients with some serious ailments this is all fine but what about less serious issues like..a person with allergies, thyroid, migraine etc. These are kinds of things which bother people but still not enough to spend 5000 for analysis. Probably a profile based pricing is a good idea? Just a thought.
Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#35Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Whenever we run a test in medicine, we ask, "How would the result affect management?" Yet, a lot of unnecessary tests are run daily at every hospital I've seen. But what's worse is that often times doctors are reluctant to find out more about a patient's illness simply because they believe "it wouldn't affect treatment and it's not worth it anyway". It doesn't take a scientist to figure out why this approach can be…
Hello. I agree with your criticisms of the medical system, and MetaMed was started specifically to help fix these problems - to bring science back into medicine. It's impossible for any one person to keep current with all research, so we provide a service where a team of scientists can keep up on the latest research for individual physicians and patients. We're all about giving access to statistics and scientific kno…
Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#37A rushed ten minute consult annoys us all, but How often is my medical condition going to be something that say paying the doctor to take 45 mins would not uncover. Most of us have diseases that are horses not zebra - and you have a strong financial incentive to encourage hypochondriacs to keep hearing zebra. If my condition has Gregory House stumped, sure ill pay you but otherwise that lump on your skin is a cyst no…
Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#38It seems that the Singularity Institute also reads James Altucher: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/what-is-the-quickest-way-to-mak....
My guess is that your "productize step" is to also use your researchers to train a specialized medical search engine you'll keep on the back-end (sort of a Mahalo+Watson).
If that isn't what you're doing, let me know. Maybe I can help get you there.
Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most insurance services don't cover our product. Also the pricing structure is wrong, our products packages top out at $50,000.
Oops, sorry. I got it from Google's cache of your website while it was down: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KFmAkiZ...