I've been thinking about systems like this because I met way too many pretentious docs and on top of that lots of docs misdiagnose and the older they get, the less motivated they are to stay up to date on new drugs.
One word of advice though.
Hating on docs might be a good idea PR-wise, but only if you're going after patients who hate on their docs, but that's not your market, your market is the docs.
This industry is always going to be regulated and that's a good thing.
So, don't try to fight them, join them and help them make money.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know this could be a money maker for them.
You also need all the data you can get.
Data on symptoms, diseases, drugs, side effects, off label usage, ...
You need the FDA, you need the docs and you need the patients.
While docs are all about sharing data, they only do so within their community.
That's the part that needs to open up. And stay open.
The patients are the easy part, they know sharing data is going to help them.
Docs aren't against systems like what you're trying to build.
Systems like this are already being used when you get PET scans.
There're hundreds, if not thousands of spots on the photos and an algorithm helps them narrow down the results. It's a huge time saver and it obviously helps the patient.
The money's in making sense of all the data and offering solutions.
You will also be dealing with companies like GE.
An example. The docs are your friend, so let's say they measure your bone density and they're willing to give you the results, what do you think GE is going to do about that?
You're in their market and they will fight you with package deals!
You'll be up against Google as well because they will offer the docs a free version of your product, ad supported.
Your system needs more data.
I tried it but the diagnosis was wrong, stayed wrong and eventually no diagnosis was given.
You need photos. You need all the help and data you can get.
The evidence suggests that 15% of medical diagnoses are incorrect. Being 2 months away from finishing my MD, I have a sense that this is not because doctors are failing to do their job, but rather, because medical diagnosis is hard.
Most people believe that their doctor gives them a diagnosis and are 100% certain of it, but in reality medicine is a highly probabilistic domain. There's a great article about a family's story with misdiagnosis in their child (http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/07/how_f...). The diagnosis was initially strep, but it soon became evident that the diagnosis was the much more rare Kawasaki disease. Symcat is an attempt to let patients know about both (ie "This is probably strep, but you should continue to monitor because Kawasaki disease can also cause this and the only way you know is if your symptoms persist").
We would love to get more docs on board and we've been working with physicians at Hopkins to make this as useful to patients as possible.
Completely agree that this lives on the quality of the data. We would like for users to contribute their data (a la patientslikeme). We also are exploring partnerships with health care providers and data stores for getting additional data.
One word of advice though. Hating on docs might be a good idea PR-wise, but only if you're going after patients who hate on their docs, but that's not your market, your market is the docs. This industry is always going to be regulated and that's a good thing. So, don't try to fight them, join them and help them make money. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know this could be a money maker for them.
You also need all the data you can get. Data on symptoms, diseases, drugs, side effects, off label usage, ... You need the FDA, you need the docs and you need the patients. While docs are all about sharing data, they only do so within their community. That's the part that needs to open up. And stay open. The patients are the easy part, they know sharing data is going to help them.
Docs aren't against systems like what you're trying to build. Systems like this are already being used when you get PET scans. There're hundreds, if not thousands of spots on the photos and an algorithm helps them narrow down the results. It's a huge time saver and it obviously helps the patient. The money's in making sense of all the data and offering solutions.
You will also be dealing with companies like GE. An example. The docs are your friend, so let's say they measure your bone density and they're willing to give you the results, what do you think GE is going to do about that? You're in their market and they will fight you with package deals! You'll be up against Google as well because they will offer the docs a free version of your product, ad supported.
Your system needs more data. I tried it but the diagnosis was wrong, stayed wrong and eventually no diagnosis was given. You need photos. You need all the help and data you can get.