CrowdMed
Industry
Founders
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California
Websitewww.crowdmed.com

CrowdMed is a healthcare platform based in San Francisco, California.[1][2][3][4] Jared Heyman, Axel Setyanto and Jessica Greenwalt founded the company in 2012.[5] CrowdMed aims to diagnose rare medical conditions through crowdsourcing and applying prediction market technology to medical data.[1][3][4] As of May 2015, CrowdMed has solved over 900 cases.[6][3][7][8]

Since October 16th, 2023, the website appears down.

History

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2022)

CrowdMed was founded in 2012.[5] During the creation process, the company's website was tested with 300 randomly selected people.[9]

In 2013, CrowdMed launched its public beta at TEDMED in Washington, D.C.

CrowdMed has users in 21 countries around the world and has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Greylock Partners, Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Patrick Dempsey.[2][3][10][11][8][12]

Operations

User information is kept anonymous, and their profile includes symptoms, health history, family background, and previous testing.[2][3][4][10][11] Hundreds of "medical detectives" then submit possible diagnoses which other detectives elaborate on. These "medical detectives" can be anyone from medical school students, to retired physicians, to anyone else, as there is no requirement for a medical degree to use the app.[6] The top three diagnoses are given to the patient for them to take to their doctor.[5][8][11][12] The results from each medical detective are weighed based on their prior performance and current rating from patients, additionally medical detectives may also earn and share monetary rewards offered by patients to anyone who helps solve their case.[13]

Reception

Users have expressed concerns that the information provided may not always come from reliable sources.[11][6][14][15]

References

  1. ^ a b "CrowdMed". AngelList. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Brian S. Hall (May 8, 2013). "CrowdMed Wants To Crowdsource Your Medical Care To Strangers". Readwrite. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e Ryan Lawler (April 16, 2013). "With $1.1 Million In Funding, YC-Backed CrowdMed Launches To Crowdsource Medical Diagnoses". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Heather Sullivan (September 10, 2014). "CrowdMed uses crowdsourcing to diagnose medical problems". NBC. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c Joshua Brustein (March 13, 2014). "Can Crowdsourcing Your Symptoms Reveal What Ails You?". BusinessWeek.
  6. ^ a b c Belluz, Julia (May 9, 2015). "The wisdom of Crowdmed: how one website is trying to solve medical mysteries". Vox. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  7. ^ Raheem F. Hosseini (August 21, 2014). "Sacramento patients crowdsource medicine and more on sites like CrowdMed". Newsreview. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c Liat Clark (April 17, 2013). "Medical web tool lets the crowd diagnose your illness". Wired. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  9. ^ Ron Leuty (April 4, 2014). "Medical diagnosis goes to the crowd". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  10. ^ a b Lora Kolodny (May 20, 2014). "Patrick 'McDreamy' Dempsey Invests in Health Startup CrowdMed". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  11. ^ a b c d Carrie Arnold (August 20, 2014). "Can the Crowd Solve Medical Mysteries?". PBS. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Jonah Comstock (April 23, 2013). "CrowdMed gets $1.1M to crowdsource diagnosis". Mobi Health News. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  13. ^ Jason Shafrin (April 23, 2014). "CrowdMed". Healthcare Economist. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  14. ^ "The dangers of crowdsourced medicine". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-03-11.
  15. ^ "The dangers of inexpert diagnosis from a noisy crowd". KevinMD.com. 2017-03-18. Retrieved 2018-03-11.

External links

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