There’s a plethora of medical advice and information about drugs and treatment online. But separating the wheat from the chaff can be somewhat of a problem.
Enter Diagnosia, a newly launched startup that is aiming to become “Europeʻs premier drug search engine” by providing a safe place for people looking up medicine information. Curiously, perhaps, it’s aimed at both patients and physicians. In fact, the consumer angle plays a part in Diagosia’s business model.
Launching from the-get-go, Diagnosia supports 22 languages – a first for a drugs search engine, claims the company – but is specifically targeting Austria, UK, France and Spain for now. It says it’s able to provide verified information on medical drugs through strategic partnerships with “numerous national and international authorities” who deal with drug licensing in various markets. These consist of packaged leaflets aimed at patients, along with professional leaflets designed for doctors, nurses, etc.
So what’s the business model? While the site is free to access, Diagnosia plans to offer aggregate, anonymous data to the drugs industry and develop a “client dashboard” for pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, governments, etc. to gain access to statistical, demographic figures about medical drug interaction.
Diagnosia’s competitors are largely U.S.-based, including Rxlist, Drugs.com and Epocrates. The company is seed-funded to the tune of €200k from undisclosed private investors and is co-founded by Dr. Lukas Zinnagl.
(Disclaimer: Lukas is a semi-regular contributor to TechCrunch Europe).
