VisualDx
VisualDx is healthcare’s answer to the visual search trend led by companies like search-cube.com, like.com etc. VisualDx helps identify dental and medical diseases by letting providers search for diagnosis based on how a disease looks and presents itself.
Rochester, NY based Logical Images is the company behind VisualDx. Understandably enough, it was founded by two dermatologists from University of Rochester in 1999. At its core lies a pretty big repository of clinical images (they claim > 60K) that are tagged with clinical metadata like symptoms, location, history etc. A user can browse through diagnosis domains or input findings to reach a relevant set of images.
There is a 15-day trial for non-enterprise users, and individual subscription pricing ranges from $49.99 (Pediatric) to $99.99 (Adult) for a year. Student discounts brings it down to a very reasonable level ($29.99 and $49.99 respectively) in my view. The company has leveraged their content to create an online consumer health resource called Skinsight. Besides the clever name, I really liked their slick ‘Skin Condition Finder‘ tool. Overall, it’s a smart approach for gaining market recognition and expanding services.
The concept of Diagnostic Decision Support (DDS) often comes with the implicit notion of text-based query, so I really like the ‘visual’ DDS approach. Dermatology, Pathology are obvious choices to implement such an approach and situations like ER, bioterrorism, infectious diseases are prime contexts since there is not enough time to engage a pure text-based knowledge base. Also, some conditions are rare enough that most practicing physicians and non-specialists haven’t actually seen one in real life. Other factors like dark skin, atypical presentation can be confounding. It’s handy to have a this as a medical education tool and as a care delivery aid in facilities where specialists are not available all the time.
I’m bit surprised why it’s not a widely subscribed resource in hospitals, public health entities, medical education and general EMR vendor products. Anyway, it’d be interesting to see this visual content embedded in other consumer tools (like iTriage, FreeMD) and enterprise offerings (Isabel Healthcare, SimulConsult, Curbside.MD etc.). Wonder which firms are competitors for VisualDx today…
Thanks for the review Pallav. Due to the ARRA meaningful use requirements there are plenty of products now identifying themselves as clinical decision support systems but few that allow the healthcare provider to build a differential based on patient findings. We take this approach one step further by providing a visual differential so the provider can see and compare to the patient. As with most clinical tools, successful integration into the provider workflow is critical to success. We see mobile as a key approach to getting these types of resources directly at the point of care to help improve diagnostic accuracy. We are planning to launch several new medical mobile apps in the coming months – including a FREE drug eruption app available today and a new version of VisualDx Mobile customized for the iPad. Additionally, we have partnered with UpToDate to allow VisualDx results to be embedded within their search. Enterprise customers who subscribe to both products will be able to opt-in to the program this fall.
Dear VisualDx Team,
Thanks for the info- sounds like a lot of exciting development is coming soon. Would you be willing to share some insights on competition in this space? What are some of the other companies with related products/services to yours?
I realize that this may be a bit sensitive question, but it’ll help educate the rest of us about the market for visual content based offerings in healthcare and how its shaping up.
Best,
~Pallav
VisualDx is one of a limited number resources in the market that includes a differential builder. It is the only resource to provide comprehensive visual representation of disease, with our Enterprise version including over 18,000 medical images. Essential Evidence Plus’ Derm Expert is another resource that provides visuals within their differential builder. Resources like Isabel, PEPID Platinum, DXplain, DiagnosisPro, and FirstConsult do include a differential generator but display a textual list as their results. Most of these resources have mobile apps as we do and there are also several resources that are only found as mobile apps such as Diagnosaurus and Mobile DDx.