Prescribing a network’s success
Blair Ryan was at the hospital getting “stitched up” for a very unglamorous injury. He was badly scratched by his cat, Penny. But embarrassment aside, the hospital visit provided Mr. Ryan with inspiration for a startup.
The attending doctor, a plastic surgery resident just two years out of medical school, inquired about the chronic liver disease noted in Mr. Ryan’s chart. The doctor asked about his symptoms, and Mr. Ryan explained that his only symptom was chronic fatigue, which he dealt with by napping four times a day.
The doctor then asked if he had ever considered taking Adderall, a drug often used to combat ADHD and narcolepsy. Mr. Ryan hadn’t. In fact, neither he nor his liver specialist realized it was an option. That recommendation has since changed Mr. Ryan’s life by significantly boosting his energy.
“Those are the types of medical collaborations and collisions that we’re trying to create,” said Mr. Ryan, co-founder and chief executive of The Rounds.
Launched in April, The Rounds is a social network for doctors — a place for physicians to post information and seek advice from their peers.
Canadian doctors search Google for medical information an average of eight times a day, Mr. Ryan, said. But how do they know what information is valuable and trustworthy? By posing questions to their peers using The Rounds, doctors know the information they receive is credible and useful, he said.
“These are doctors who are all across the country and who would never otherwise cross paths,” he said. “They have that opportunity now.”
The Rounds also offers secure texting and private messaging applications. The idea is to take all the modern tools of communication and apply them to doctors’ searches for information. And it is as secure as PayPal, Mr. Ryan, said meaning doctors need not worry about information being compromised.
As of last week, more than 750 doctors had signed on for a closed-beta testing phase. The site has been adding 10 doctors a day, and Mr. Ryan said his goal is to eventually sign up all of Canada’s 75,000 or so physicians. He also hopes to push the site beyond Canada, seeing it as a great way for doctors in rural and developing countries to get quality information and advice.
“I want this to be the first place that any physician on the planet goes to find information,” he said.
The goal isn’t survival. The goal
is some kind of significant success
Mr. Ryan, who founded the startup with Will Harris and Michael Clory, an emergency medicine doctor, envisions similar sites for pharmacists, dentists, and physiotherapists.
With its roster of doctors increasing daily, the big question is how to draw revenue from those users. The Rounds plans to charge pharmaceutical companies, governments and other parties to survey and engage with doctors. Pharmaceutical firms could also use the site to alert doctors to drug recalls and developments.
“It will never be ads for Drug A or Drug B... It’s not going to be a marketplace for drugs,” Mr. Ryan said.
Then there’s the question of when to monetize, which Ben Yoskovitz, co-author of Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster, says is a difficult one to answer.
For a startup such as The Rounds, the primary goal should be promoting “massive user growth,” he said. Making money is important, but in the early stages it’s not as important as boosting the number of users.
“If you can’t do that, who cares if you’re monetizing the small group of users you have. Social networks, by their nature, increase in value as you add more people,” Mr. Yoskovitz said.
“Focusing on monetization early, when you’re a consumer play, is a hedge against growth. The goal isn’t survival. The goal is some kind of significant success.”
For now, Mr. Ryan is cautious — growing the site’s base of doctors while refining it.
“As we open to 75,000 physicians we want to make sure we have a product that fits their needs,” he said. “How can we make this the tool they need everyday — the first app they open on their phone everyday?”
The Rounds is quickly becoming that tool for Rob Green, a Halifaxbased trauma doctor who doesn’t use Facebook and is a sporadic Twitter user, but says he uses The Rounds twice a day.
“As a physician you always try to be quite private. So Facebook has never felt right to me. But The Rounds certainly does,” said Dr. Green, who is investing in the startup’s $600,000 seed round.
“There’s a whole generation of students and physicians coming that is totally dialled in to technology and social networking.
“I think it’s got huge potential.”