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Ask HN: MRI Review and Diagnosis as a Service?

1 points by ArlenBales ↗ HN
There's a lot of physicians out there where you can send them your diagnostic studies (MRIs, CTs, etc.) and they will attempt to make a diagnostic of your medical issues and possibly consult with you further on treatment.

Just search "mri review free" on Google for examples.

Of course sending your MRI to 10 different doctors takes a lot of time, like needing 10 different CDs of all your MRIs (medical industry standard still seems to be using CDs instead of USB drives for diagnostic imagery, at least in the U.S.).

What if there was a secure service where you could send your MRIs to, and on your behalf they would make copies of your MRIs and send them to dozens of different doctors for MRI review and 2nd/3rd/4th opinions? You would then receive communication from dozens of different doctors and many 2nd/3rd/4th/etc. opinions. Then based on the diagnosis and interaction with the doctor you can decide who to use. After all, not all doctors are equal and some are definitely better and more qualified than others, especially when it comes to surgeries.

I deal with a lot of chronic pain, and I've spent months trying to get diagnosed and treated and this idea popped into my head because of the frustration of trying to get diagnosed and treated for chronic pain. The normal route of GP -> Referral to specialist isn't working out for me, mostly because the specialists I end up with all seem to be shit (the problem of living in a small town).

3 comments

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blinded
You can have your MRI copy sent to other places outside of your city for review. ie. I live on the west coast but had mine read for a second opinion at a spot in Chicago. Cost 100 bucks it was a service the doctor provided for potential patients.
ArlenBales
Oh I know, that's what this idea revolves around.

I've been sending my MRIs for review outside my city, but the process takes a lot of time: Finding a doctor that you can travel to (if necessary) that offers MRI review, making copies of your MRIs (if necessary), filling out the form(s), mailing, etc.

The idea proposed is to simplify all that by sending it to a secure service that does everything for you. They would make copies of your MRIs and send them to multiple doctors, and those doctors would then get back to you directly. The doctors wouldn't even know the CDs are being sent to them through this "proxy" service, the return address would be your own. Obviously such a service would have to be very secure for medical and personal information. I know of no such service that exists, but it seems like it would make good money. I'd easily pay a one time $100 to get a diagnosis and consultation opportunity from multiple doctors.

blinded
I do see your point. There is a business here for sure. I think there is also a business in removing the need for CDs and sharing of an image. Assuming HIPPA release forms were signed it still requires the Dr to be tied into the network where your image exists. This would also mean the big medical record players in the space agree to some common standard or interface which would thus hurt their bottom dollar (ie. making it easy to move off their platform for another would remove their leverage for service contract negotiation).