As a radiologist, Steve Herman always suspected there was a better way to decide who should be exposed to the radiation emitted by MRI machines and CT scans.
Having already sold one startup - a company called Interpra Medical Imaging Network Ltd., which used the Internet to transmit radiology information - to a U.S. health company, he decided to launch MedCurrent Corp. in 2003.
Software in hand, Dr. Herman is now aggressively pursuing customers for a software package that allows doctors to ask a computer who needs a magnetic resonance imaging test and who would be better served in other ways.
Here's his story, in his own words:
Background
I started a software company in the mid-1990s that made software for radiologists, to help them make reports more efficiently. That company, Interpra, was bought by Merge Technologies.
I worked as the chief medical officer there for four years, and left in 2003 to start MedCurrent. We're nine people now. The bulk of them are developers but some are sales and marketing.
The issue
It's well recognized that a significant number of tests are ordered inappropriately. A study from the American College of Radiology showed that 26 per cent of CT scans and MRIs were inappropriate. In the United States, that means wasted money.
It wastes our money, too, but it also leads to increased waiting times. Think of this - 62 per cent of the head scans ordered were inappropriate.
The market opportunity
Our software has sophisticated rules that can be applied in any specialty, but right now it is for radiology.
A doctor describes a specific problem, and based on the jurisdiction the software will recommend the best course of action.
Doctors just can't stay abreast of all the developments - and this software is standardized and based on evidence-based medicine.
So now our main focus is the United States; our target market is health insurers. They are spending $100-billion a year on tests, and 25 per cent of them are useless.
That's $25-billion being wasted.
Competitive landscape
There are a couple of others, but we can extend our [scope] beyond radiology.
Components of our system are patented, and we spent a long time thinking about designing and building the software. It wouldn't be easy to duplicate.
It's very easy to adapt to local needs, which is very important because we could develop criteria for Ontario or different hospitals with different levels of expertise.
But it can also set different levels of priority - chest pains may be rated one (most serious) while something else could come in at a lower rating.
There's also a lack of standardization that we can address - an MRI may take 45 minutes at one facility and 20 minutes at another.
If you deal with that, then you reduce wait times and make sure MRIs are being used efficiently across the provinces.
What happens next
We are enhancing the product, but the main thing is marketing. We'll be focusing on insurance companies in the United States and also looking in Ontario.
We can help them save money in the United States, and in Ontario you get the added benefit of helping them reduce wait times and save money, too. We think that's pretty compelling.
