For Medpedia. An early player in social media, in 1999 Currier founded Tickle, a site for online psychological assessments (e.g. Myers Briggs). He sold it to Monster Worldwide in 2004. A bad user experience on WebMD pushed Currier to apply his skills to healthcare. As the name implies, Medpedia uses the open source, indexing frameworks of Wikipedia to disseminate information at scale. But it takes several advancing steps that are especially relevant in this vertical. One, all contributors must identify themselves to deter “bad actors,” and while anyone can suggest new information, only PhDs and MDs have editing privileges. Think: Wikipedia with cops instead of a neighborhood watch. Two, Medpedia has social networks for self-described groups of professionals, where they can exchange research and accelerate debates on ideas. Think: a LinkedIn for docs that does an end-run around the turgid peer review industry. Three, it offers social networks for patients; but being open source, is closer to Ning than PatientsLikeMe. Currier thinks facilitating live communication between its doctor and patient groups is the next step. Unlike World Health Wiki, Medpedia eschews advertising. Its revenue model “is unclear” but will likely root to custom building mini-Medpedias for associations, med schools, or businesses. We imagine this last category being small to medium-sized employers that want their workers engaged in wellness, but don’t have the budget for RedBrick Health. If it works, that’s: Wikipedia + LinkedIn + PLM + American Well + RedBrick + PubMed. We’re not at all sure he can pull it off, but innovation depends on such experimentation.

“The world has got to take care of itself. Patients know as much as the doctors [so] hierarchical systems will change, but where is the Ning for patient communications? We’ve built the version 1.0 for that. Now, if you want to maintain your privacy about your ID or medical information, then MedPedia is not for you. Transparency is a necessity.”