Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) today announced an innovative partnership with CrowdMed, a Web-based technology that harnesses "the wisdom of crowds" to solve difficult medical cases online. Starting January 1, 2016, CrowdMed will be offered as a pilot to US Shire employees and covered dependents.
CrowdMed aims to use the collective knowledge of medical professionals, medical students and other interested parties to help initially diagnose difficult-to-identify conditions or to provide patients with second opinions on their medical diagnoses. Using a patented crowdsourcing technology, CrowdMed has resolved over 1,200 real-world medical issues to date with an over 60% success rate*.
Shire believes digital health is a disruptive movement that is already creating opportunities to leverage technology in ways not previously possible to the benefit of patients, medical professionals, and caregivers. As a leading global biotech focused on rare diseases and specialty conditions, Shire embraces innovative ideas and partnerships to address unmet medical needs.
"This pilot program demonstrates Shire’s commitment to exploring novel ideas and services to improve the lives of our employees and their families," said Shire's Chief Information Office Karl Hick. "CrowdMed may be able to provide a valuable alternative source of information for those struggling with a health condition."
CrowdMed Founder and CEO, Jared Heyman, commented, "We look forward to working with Shire to provide crowdsourced medical answers to every employee who submits a case on CrowdMed."
About Shire
Shire enables people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives.
Our strategy is to focus on developing and marketing innovative specialty medicines to meet significant unmet patient needs.
We focus on providing treatments in Rare Diseases, Neuroscience, Gastrointestinal and Internal Medicine and we are developing treatments for symptomatic conditions treated by specialist physicians in other targeted therapeutic areas, such as Ophthalmics.
About CrowdMed
CrowdMed,Inc. harnesses the wisdom of crowds to collaboratively solve even the world’s most difficult medical cases quickly and accurately online.
On CrowdMed, a patient with an unsolved medical mystery posts their case by answering a comprehensive set of medical questions, and uploading relevant diagnostic & imaging test results. Then members of CrowdMed's community of thousands of Medical Detectives select and collaborate on solving it using chat, discussion, and point allocation features. Meanwhile, an innovative prediction market system accurately identifies the most probable diagnoses and solutions.
The San Francisco-based startup has raised over $3M in venture capital to date from top-tier Silicon Valley venture funds, including NEA, Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, and Y Combinator, to disrupt the $320B Medical Centers of Excellence market by providing vastly more accurate, timely, and cost-effective diagnoses online.