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 The service, called CrowdMed (www.crowdmed.com), relies on retired
doctors, nurses and other “medical detectives” to help patients find
answers to their hard-to-diagnose medical conditions.
Jared Heyman, the founder of CrowdMed, told Reuters Health, “We’ve
been live for 15 months, and more than 50 percent of our patients
tell us that their case was successfully solved.”
Heyman was inspired to launch CrowdMed after watching his sister
suffer from a chronic undiagnosed medical condition and rack up
nearly $100,000 in medical bills.
Today CrowdMed has nearly 2,000 active medical detectives. The
company claims its approach has so far helped solve more than 200
unique cases out of some 400 submissions that some patients say have
“stumped” their doctors for years.
Patients remain anonymous. They pay a $50 deposit to submit a case;
the fee is refunded after a case is closed. There’s an option to pay
$199 for help preparing a case for submission, and patients can
offer compensation to draw more attention ($200 minimum).
According to Heyman, cash compensation tends to attract more and
better “medical detectives.” Ten percent of that compensation goes
to CrowdMed, Heyman said.
Once a case is submitted, it can take days to months to receive a
CrowdMed report.
Patients who wish for their case to remain on CrowdMed for more than
30 days pay $99 per month. Patients can get refunds if they submit a
letter from a physician stating that none of the diagnostic or
solution suggestions were accurate.
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But some physicians worry about the accuracy of CrowdMed. Dr. David
Zich, for example, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago,
said he believes crowdsourcing for a diagnosis could do more harm
than good.
“If the patient isn’t actually sitting in front of you, if you can’t
poke and prod and observe, then you may not be getting accurate
information. I have seen a number of patients who have inaccurately
described their issues and led nurses and medical students down a
completely erroneous path,” he told Reuters Health.
Most patients, Zich said, will receive an accurate diagnosis from
their doctor. “Probably just one percent of cases result in multiple
specialists and rack up large bills. Most people are able to be
handled by one or two physicians,” he added.
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