Medical Detectives

For Beyond 50's "Medical Care" talks, listen to an interview with Jared Heyman.  He is the CEO of CrowdMed and a "crowdsource" specialty expert.  He'll talk about re-engaging retired doctors in a "crowdsource" program called CrowdMed to become "medical detectives" to collectively solve the world's most difficult medical cases and revolutionize the economics of modern medicine. As medical detectives, retired doctors place online "bets" on the most likely solutions for patients with hard-to-diagnose medical conditions.  CrowdMed then gathers these suggested medical diagnoses from hundreds of retired doctors and other medical community members.

A Model of Medical Efficiency

Founded in 2012, CrowdMed was created by Heyman after witnessing his younger sister suffer for years from a serious medical condition that was chronic and undiagnosed.  She was seen by two dozen medical experts for her rare condition that cost $100,000 in fees for their services.

Heyman devised a better alternative to helping those like his sister who are desperately seeking answers. 

The average patient that has uses CrowdMed has not only gone from doctor to doctor, but also spent over 200 hours online trying to self-diagnose.

Crowdsourcing from the Medical Community

The medical detectives who participate in CrowdMed are a mix of retired and non-retired physicians from around the world.  Included within this group are nurses, alternative healers (like acupuncturists, chiropractors, nutritionists), and medical students.

Currently, about 10,000 have joined to be a medical detective in an altruistic way to solve difficult cases.

A lot of the doctors complain that they work for the insurance agencies rather than the patients.  The difference is that CrowdMed is much more pure.  There's only one client, which is the patient, explained Heyman.

Gamification of CrowdMed

Online bets are placed in CrowdMed.  It's very gamified by baiting the medical detectives with performance.  The doctor(s) win cash or points when they provide a diagnostic that a patient feels is the best one. 

A spirit of competition and collaboration (that's between medical detectives and patient, and between medical detectives) is encouraged. 

The results have been astounding:
*Medical detectives have solved 200+ cases in months instead of years.
*Medical detectives cost a few hundred dollars (instead of $100,000+).
*Medical detectives are 100x more efficient than the U.S. medical system.

Using CrowdMed is Simple

It can take between 30 - 90 days for an answer that comes in the form of a CrowdMed report in pdf format revealing a short list of the most probable diagnostic solutions and suggestions, according to the consensus opinion of the medical detective community.

A transcript is also provided of the chat correspondence between the detectives, as well as between the patient and detective(s).

The medical conclusions given are sane, well-backed up from a neutral, 3rd party perspective.  This full report can then be presented to their doctor to determine best treatment.

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