platform
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
based in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Jared Heyman, Axel Setyanto and Jessica Greenwalt founded the company in 2012. CrowdMed aims to diagnose rare medical conditions through
crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
and applying
prediction market
Prediction markets (also known as betting markets, information markets, decision markets, idea futures or event derivatives) are open markets where specific outcomes can be predicted using financial incentives. Essentially, they are exchange-trad ...
technology to medical data. As of May 2015, CrowdMed has solved over 900 cases.
Since October 16, 2023, the website appears down.
History
Inspired by his sister's struggle to find a diagnosis for her FXPOI condition, Jared to started the company called CrowdMed.
CrowdMed was founded in 2012. During the creation process, the company's website was tested with 300 randomly selected people.
In 2013, CrowdMed launched its public beta at
TEDMED
TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference.
Background
, TEDMED staff operates from Stamfor ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
CrowdMed has users in 21 countries around the world and has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from investors including
New Enterprise Associates
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...
,
Greylock Partners
Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...
,
Y Combinator
Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Str ...
,
Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Andreessen ...
,
Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successfu ...
and
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fil ...
.
Operations
User information is kept anonymous, and their profile includes symptoms, health history, family background, and previous testing. 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. The top three diagnoses are given to the patient for them to take to their doctor. 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.
Reception
Users have expressed concerns that the information provided may not always come from reliable sources. A study in January 2016, looked at almost 400 cases between May 2013 and April 2015. About half of patients were likely to recommend CrowdMed to a friend and about 60% reported that the experience provided insights that led them closer to the correct diagnoses.