QuantiaMD lands $12M for its doctors-only social network

QuantiaMD, the website and mobile app for doctors to brainstorm and collaborate on tricky cases, has raised $12 million in venture capital funding.

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The Waltham, MA. based health IT startup will use its funding to engage more physicians, and add them to the growing network. Over 160,000 physicians are currently registered — representing about 25 percent of doctors in the U.S.  The technology is secure and encrypted — so it’s safe for doctors to discuss sensitive patient information and offer practical tips.

To remain at the top of their field, doctors need to stay up-to-date on the latest research.. In they past, they communicated through fax and email. It wasn’t an easy task for the founding team to change this behavior, but the persistence is paying off.

“We are replacing antiquated methods, and therefore it takes time to encourage adoption,” said Eric Schultz, the company’s CEO, when asked about the greatest hurdle to growth.

The company is showing signs of traction with its target market: Physicians that regularly use the system spend an average of 45 minutes per week sharing their insights, and asking for clinical advice from the pool of over 500 experts from major medical institutions.

Once they sign-up, they can set up a profile page, review research, access relevant discussion forums, and privately reach out to other physicians. Doctors are keen adopters of tablet devices and smartphones — about third of them exclusively use the mobile app.

QuantiaMD makes it easier for hospitals, pharma’s and health insurance providers as a means to reach doctors — which is key to the company’s business plan. “Most health plans and hospitals still rely heavily on homegrown portals, fax and mail to communicate with physicians,” said Schultz. With the funding, the company will also invest in sales and marketing efforts to reach the top pharmaceutical companies. To succeed, it will need to beat out competitors like Doximity, the “Facebook for doctors” and Sermo, an online community for physicians.

The funding round was led by existing investor, Fuse Capital.

Top image via Shutterstock

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