By Anthony DeMatteo
Staff Writer
A local company founded by a Jacksonville cardiologist hopes big corporations will pay for the opinions of 100 doctors.
Michael Koren, a Jacksonville cardiologist, started the Web site Ask100doctors.com about a year ago. Visitors to the site can submit questions, either simple or complex, and receive answers and comments from 100 doctors.
“The idea of the Web site is that it allows us to get the opinion of 100 doctors on any issue,” said the company’s Chief Operating Officer Aaron Stein.
Stein said an editorial board reviews submitted questions and edits them so the doctors can understand the “meat” of the queries.
Doctors choose one of about five multiple choice answers. The first 100 answers are displayed in bar-graph form. The doctors’ names do not correlate with specific answers.
Simple questions cost $250 plus a free subscription to the site. Complex questions, Stein said, are $5,000, but the company does not expect the average person to pay that much money for an answer to a medical question.
“It wouldn’t be cost effective,” he said. “We are hoping large companies will use the service for market research.”
A one-year subscription to the site is $100. A 24-hour pass is $15.
Koren is the chief executive officer of the Jacksonville Center for Clinical Research, which participates in clinical drug trials. About five years ago, Koren developed software for management of clinical trials that led to the idea for 100 Doctors.
“Because we were in the business of getting a lot of doctors involved in projects, it was a good fit,” he said.
Koren, a Harvard Medical School graduate, said the Web site consolidates information in an unbiased, easy-to-understand format.
“There is so much information out there that people get confused – their heads spin,” he said. “They don’t know what to trust. They see something on the Web and don’t know the credibility of the source.”
For corporations wanting to do market research, Koren said the Web site is a bargain.
“For a pharmaceutical company to study a drug, or a manufacturer of a medical device to collect data – if they wanted to hire a market research firm to do an Internet-based study of 100 doctors’ opinions, it would cost about $50,000 and take about a month,” said Koren. “With our technology, they can do it for less than half that – in about a week.”
Koren said he sees other applications for the service, including allowing jurors to evaluate differing opinions of medical experts testifying in court cases.
“In a short amount of time, you can get opinions as to whether what was done was in the standard of care,” he said.
The doctors answering questions are mostly local and specialize in general medicine. But Koren said the group is growing, and the company is expanding to include more specialists.
For their participation, doctors are paid a royalty based on the profits of the company.
Stein said the company conducted a month-long radio campaign last fall.
“We got a decent response, but we didn’t have a lot of people wanting to pay $100 a year to become members,” he said. “I’m not sure our main focus is ever going to be on the public. Our best business model is going after the corporations who need this information.”
For complex questions, doctors’ answers are broken up into categories including race, sex and the specialty of the physician.
Stein said the company, which operates from an office on University Boulevard, is working on building the Web site, researching the credentials of doctors and marketing.
A poll that 100 Doctors conducted on the administration of a vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV) to young girls was recently referenced on National Public Radio.
Florida Sen. Jim King has announced he will propose a bill to vaccinate the state’s prepubescent girls against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, following the lead of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who recently mandated the vaccine in his state.
Ninety-four percent of the 100 doctors polled said they would want their 10-year-old daughter to get the vaccine.
“That’s a very powerful piece of information from a public-health standpoint,” said Koren. “As a consumer, that’s the kind of information that can help you make an informed decision.”