MetaMed Enhances Medical Diagnoses With Data Analysts, Researchers

Michael Vassar, 34, is one of the world’s leading theorists on existential risk—as in cataclysmic events that would pretty much wipe out the human race. He’s also spent much of his career thinking about developing artificial-intelligence software intended to yield supersmart machines dedicated to helping people, rather than a legion of HALs or Terminators. Last year he co-founded MetaMed, a startup that seeks to use data analysis techniques to better diagnose patients facing grave illnesses.

At its core, MetaMed tries to offer a second opinion that’s more nuanced and more thoroughly researched than those of most general practitioners. When a patient contacts the company and provides information about his or her illness, staffers enter the data into an analysis and collaboration system that enlists a team of consultants from a growing 40-person network. In addition to physicians and medical specialists, there are chemists, molecular biologists, data scientists, librarians, and others—some of these experts are salaried, some are paid per consult. Researchers drawn from Google and top universities compare the patient’s case with the latest scientific studies, medical journals, and health data, seek out the procedures and hospitals that offer them the best chance at recovery, and give patients a wider look at their treatment options than a physician might provide. Jaan Tallinn, one of the chief engineers behind Skype, is the company’s chairman. “Our attitude is that medicine would be better if it were more of a science than an art,” Vassar says.