iMedix , the first community-powered health search engine, launched today after a year in development. iMedix allows consumers to benefit from the online research conducted by thousands of others with similar health conditions or interests. The integrated community platform allows users to enhance that information through real-time patient-to-patient interaction. By combining advanced search with community features, iMedix empowers people to find and share health information in order to make better health-related decisions.
iMedix’s patent-pending ‘evolutionary’ search engine analyzes users’ feedback against millions of medical articles, pictures and videos in order to provide the best answers for health related questions and concerns. The system ranks Web pages based on those that have proven to be most useful and relevant to other users searching for the same information. Additionally, iMedix shows users whether pages are from sources certified by HON (Health On the Net Foundation), URAC (Utilization Review Accreditation Commission) and other organizations.
Using iMedix, patients can easily connect with others who suffer from similar conditions and exchange information about symptoms, prevention and treatment through real-time chat – all in a single click. They can also build their own communities around specific health interests by creating friends lists and adding new friends.
The company will soon make its health search technology available to other Web sites. Health portals, publications, blogs and other sites will have the ability to embed the iMedix search widget to display instant and relevant health information from people and Web sources.
iMedix meets a growing demand for reliable health information online. Ten million Americans per day use the Internet to search for health-related information, according to the Pew Research Center[1] . However, the majority are dissatisfied with their search experience: A study by JupiterResearch[2] revealed that only 16 percent of adults who searched online for health information were satisfied with their findings. There is also a strong demand among patients for community support and interaction via the Web: A separate JupiterResearch[3] study revealed that 34 percent of US adults connected with others online, or with the online content created by others, for health reasons.
iMedix is a privately-funded start-up, founded in January 2007 by Internet veterans Amir Leitersdorf and Iri Amirav.
Amir Leitersdorf, CEO of iMedix, previously co-founded Movota, which was successfully sold to The Bertelsmann Group in 2005. He also held the position of CTO at Tapuz (TPUZ – Tel Aviv Stock Exchange). Iri Amirav, CMO at iMedix, established and led the marketing division at MetaCafe , overseeing 2,500 percent growth to 17 million uniques and 450 million page views per month. Iri previously held positions at Time Warner and Pelephone. iMedix is supported by an advisory board of strategic investors, successful Internet entrepreneurs, information retrieval specialists, artificial intelligence professors and medical experts. The company has raised almost $2 million to date in seed funding.
“Until today, searching for health information online was a lonely business. Now, for the first time, it is a collaborative effort,” said Amir Leitersdorf, co-founder and CEO of iMedix. “Our technology uses advanced learning systems to leverage the hours of online research conducted by thousands of users for the benefit of the individual patient. Every user interaction contributes directly to the site’s ability to deliver relevant results. This breakthrough is what makes us so excited about bringing iMedix to market.”
“We saw a tremendous opportunity to create a patient-powered service that gave users everything they need to make better health-related decisions,” said Iri Amirav, co-founder and CMO of iMedix. “Our goal was to allow patients to harness the real-life experiences of others. We’ve done that on iMedix by allowing patients to find each other and communicate in real-time.”
Sign-up for free by visiting iMedix at http://www.imedix.com
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