Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

metamed.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 103 posts

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#51

Post by carbocation »

Udo wrote: post #44
carbocation wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 disastrous. Some tests will not change management (just get a chest ct? no chest x-ray needed); other tests could change management but are unlikely to have an…

It's not just the perspective of a patient or a relative of a patient, though I can offer that too. This is the profession as I encountered it in medical school and clinical phases of my university career. Granted, it's in Germany not the US, but I'm guessing it can't be that different on the other side of the Atlantic.

Sorry, I completely changed 100% of the text that you replied to. I should have deleted the original and written a new one, but at the time I saw no reply.

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#52

Post by ThomPete »

Mycroft65536 wrote: post #49
ThomPete wrote: post #46

Great project and may I say great design. Looks very very solid IMHO. Good luck. As someone with a 1000 moles who have been diagnosed with melanoma (luckily early stage and now removed) would this service be of any good for me?

If you're uncertain of the diagnosis or are worried about it coming out of remission, then we will be able to help. How long ago did you have it?

Last year, just after I moved to the US in May.

Been quite interesting (and scary) to go through the US healthcare system coming from Denmark.

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#53

Post by apsec112 »

FireBeyond wrote: post #50
waterlesscloud wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prices are currently listed as $5,000 (Core), $10,000 (Expanded), and Call For Quote (Concierge). "Concierge" for medical service feels a little cheesy to me, but I'm not in that income demo so I could be completely wrong. The sample Surface report looks kinda thin to me for $5,000. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_Sleep.pdf The Expanded report is a little better. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_H_Pylori.pdf The…

"The sample Surface report looks kinda thin to me for $5,000. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_Sleep.pdf No kidding. For three pages, effectively (with lots of whitespace). In fact, for $5,000, your actionable items on the subject of "Difficulty Sleeping" are: 1. Get tested for sleep apnea. 2. Take melatonin. 3. Reduce caffeine intake. Seriously? The first item is "get tested for thing you are complaining about"? h…

Sorry about that, you're totally right - that was an older draft version that got uploaded by mistake (I work for MetaMed). We'll have the new one up in a day or so when the launch chaos has died down.

(I can send you a bunch of our more current research tonight if you're interested in this particular subject - email me at avance@metamed.com)

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#54

Post by guylhem »

ThomPete wrote: post #45
guylhem wrote: post #33

Excellent idea, great concept!!! It'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 ha…

What a great story and congrats on the find! Where those tests really expensive though or do you mean what you could have charged?

Usually, it's more an opportunity cost ie what could have been charged if the same things had been done in the neuro ward.

In the ER in France, it's more or less a flat rate that gets charged - which incentivizes cost reduction. There is an exception if the patient is admitted, but with the billing rules of the time, it reverted to a flat rate if the patient was transferred to another hospital.

Considering this was not the patient first contact with an hospital and that the last times they had found nothing (it didn't seem to me they looked very hard), I just couldn't pass the bucket and hope this time they did things right - the last few times they didn't, so why now?

Working in hospitals taught me at least one thing - never trust other people work. You want something done well, you do it yourself.

Sorry if that doesn't make me a team player, but I've seen so many bad things happen :-(

[Another thing I learnt today - when one remember work stories 9 years later, it usually does not speak well about the work environment]

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#55

Post by w1ntermute »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #41
nostromo wrote: post #6

From 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…

Prices are currently listed as $5,000 (Core), $10,000 (Expanded), and Call For Quote (Concierge). "Concierge" for medical service feels a little cheesy to me, but I'm not in that income demo so I could be completely wrong. The sample Surface report looks kinda thin to me for $5,000. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_Sleep.pdf The Expanded report is a little better. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_H_Pylori.pdf The…

> "Concierge" for medical service feels a little cheesy to me, but I'm not in that income demo so I could be completely wrong.

It's actually an accepted term, albeit in a clinical context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierge_medicine

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#56

Post by Mycroft65536 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #2

As a patient, I'd worry that the "at least two of our expert researchers will validate test results to rule out any errors" would get steered towards the less credentialed folks - the Eagle Scout philosophy major rather than the one or two MDs on the list of staff. I'd have more comments, but the site appears to have gone for now...

The Eagle Scout philosophy majors are doing the photo editing and art design. All of our researchers have a more rigorous background.

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#57

Post by ryguytilidie »

guylhem wrote: post #33

Excellent idea, great concept!!! It'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 ha…

I wish more doctors were like you. I was in the ER last month and have seen 6 different doctors since and none really seemed to care once the problem got more complicated than the stock answer or giving me some painkillers :(

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#58

Post by FireBeyond »

ceejayoz wrote: post #32
samstave wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much original research will my kaiser Insurance cover?

Almost certainly none.

One of the deficiencies of US healthcare.

Insurance providers will spend a lot of money telling you, advertising aimed at "taking better care of yourself" (that they should "need" to do so is a different, though sad, indictment).

Go ahead, then. Tell 90% of insurance carriers that you have committed to, documented yoga, gym attendance, walks every day. Ask them what premium reduction they're prepared to offer as a result. Be ready to hold the phone away from your ear as they laugh.

Ask them how much they'll contribute to your weight loss efforts.

Then ask how much they'll cover of your gastric bypass surgery.

The problem with health insurance in this country is that it's not "insurance" at all. It's amortized healthcare. And surprisingly enough, most insurance providers are not charities. They make a profit off of what you are charged.

Pre-existing conditions are a fun one. Actuaries have spend countless hours analyzing and modeling segments of the populace. Along comes John Smith. He's seeking healthcare. He happens to have a pre-existing condition, say, gout. But he's young, in his thirties. He gets a gout flare-up once, maybe twice a year, and a dose of OTC NSAIDs is enough to take care of it. He knows that in time, his condition is likely to worsen, and that he'll need more active management.

But right now? He doesn't care. He's not seeking out health insurance as a result of his condition. He's just looking out for his general health.

The preponderance of a population to have this condition, and ergo this average healthcare cost, hasn't increased by virtue of him wanting insurance. But you watch, as a carrier will deny him (or at least subject him to extensive waitlisting).

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#59

Post by waterlesscloud »

w1ntermute wrote: post #55
waterlesscloud wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prices are currently listed as $5,000 (Core), $10,000 (Expanded), and Call For Quote (Concierge). "Concierge" for medical service feels a little cheesy to me, but I'm not in that income demo so I could be completely wrong. The sample Surface report looks kinda thin to me for $5,000. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_Sleep.pdf The Expanded report is a little better. http://www.metamed.com/static/Meta_H_Pylori.pdf The…

> "Concierge" for medical service feels a little cheesy to me, but I'm not in that income demo so I could be completely wrong. It's actually an accepted term, albeit in a clinical context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierge_medicine

Ah! Thanks for that, I had a feeling I might be missing something there.

Re: My new medical research startup launches today: let me know what you think

#60

Post by Mycroft65536 »

Sharma wrote: post #27

Idea 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.

The price is based on the amount of work that goes into each report. While people might like to get detailed information about their allergies, and would like to pay $200 for it, we can't review medical records and the literature for that little. Researcher time costs more than that.
Post reply on HN