Ash Damle, CEO and founder of MEDgle.com, the web search for health. Vote MEDgle @ CNET top 100.
Andrew Yates of Think Gene: Hi Ash. Tell me about MEDgle.
Ash Damle of MEDgle: MEDgle is a utility for better health. People today are overloaded by all the disorganized health information, and 10% to 20% of health cases are misdiagnosed. Like a flashlight in this dark, MEDgle is your personalized map to your health. We help people know their options so that they can make intelligent decisions.
Drew: How old is MEDgle? What is your growth like?
Ash: MEDgle is about a year and a half old, and just by word of mouth and recommendations, traffic has tripled in the past few months. Also, about 50% of our traffic is international.
Drew: What about concerns that people could use web tools like MEDgle to misdiagnose themselves?
Ash: MEDgle was never meant to be a self-diagnosis tool. What we do is answer for people: “what is the next step?” Fundamentally, the patient must first recognize that they have a health issue and then must act by contacting the right medical professional. Further, the patient must be able to communicate their problem to that medical professional to get the best care possible. MEDgle makes medical facts relevant to real people to help people bridge the gap between what people do know and don’t know to make that health info actionable.
For example, “what doctor in my area treats asthma?” Or even, “I have these symptoms, and I don’t know what asthma is. Is this normal, and who do I contact?” We answer that.
Drew: You keep mentioning that MEDgle is personalized. What do you mean?
Ash: Well, for other information, personalization might not matter so much, but in health —it matters. Who you are makes a world of difference. For example, given you have diabetes or some other condition, given you are so old and of what gender —these factors greatly influence the relevance of different medical data. The MEDgle system reflects that, and our expert systems customize your search results based on your personal profile and risks factors.
Drew: So how personalized could one get? For example, I recently bought a genetic profile for myself at 23andme. Could someday plug my online service like MEDgle and get medical search results customized all the way to my genes?
Ash: Sure, though we’re not there yet. But yes, I think that’s the future: personal medicine. Our biggest push right now is to personalize specific doctor recommendations —complete with contact information and a map— based on your location, profile, and search results. We’re also currently looking to partner with health care providers and communities.
About Ash: The Product of a Family of Doctors
Drew: You’re an MIT alum with a background in Computer Science and Expert Systems. When did you become interested in health?
Ash: My parents are both doctors, so since I was a kid. Once, in 7th grade, I refused to go to school because I knew that I had just contracted chicken pox. But this is early in the morning, and my mother tells me “no you don’t,” you know, like any mother with children trying to get out the door to work. In 5 minutes, I prove to her with a symptomatic diagnosis that I did, and I get to stay home sick after all. So I’ve always had an interest in health and medicine. I grew up with it.
Drew: That background must have been useful in building MEDgle.
Ash: Right. I grew up around medical talk, so I know the language. We’d be going out to eat as a family and my father would say “oh, by the way, we need to stop at the ICU on the way.” Physicians enter all the data into MEDgle, and without their involvement, MEDgle would not exist. But my familiarity with and passion for medicine definitely helps us build the systems that make MEDgle that much more useful for users.
On Software Startups: It’s all about Faith
Drew: So, my background is web software and Internet startups. What can you tell me about your experience launching MEDgle from an engineering founder’s perspective?
Ash: Well, we’re running a several gigabyte expert system in seven languages that people trust to make important decisions about their health. What we build is done by the numbers. You can’t hack something like this together or, what, you have a million hacks. That would never work.
Drew: But you have an engineering team of only a very few programmers. How do you build so much with so little?
Ash: In my experience, on a software team, 4 to 5 people do 95% of the work. If a team gets bigger than 5 people, I think “what the hell are they doing?” (laughs) So what it’s all about is working with core team of hyper-efficient people. They can’t be babysat, stuff just has to get done. There’s no time or energy for anything else. My partners expect the same from me, too. I think what it comes down to is faith. You just have to trust each other that what needs to get done will get done. It’s all about faith. Without faith on everyone’s part in a startup, you’ll have nothing, because people won’t trust each other, so nobody will take initiative to do anything unless they’re explicitly managed, and you don’t have the time and attention to do that. Plus, people won’t be thinking for themselves, so they’ll be much less efficient, and that hurts morale, and that makes people even less productive and less engaged, and so you get in this spiral of doom —especially since there’s always that cushy job at another company that pays better and doesn’t demand your every waking hour.
Drew: Ok, good advice. Thanks, Ash, and I look forward to watching MEDgle’s continued success.
Ash: Thanks, Andrew.
April 07, 2008 — New York Times correspondent Amy Harmon won her second Pulitzer prize for her series “The DNA Age.” “The DNA Age” addressed current controversial topics in ongoing DNA testing including its potential to improve preventive medicine and concerns about privacy and a “genetic elite.” Other finalists were The Boston Globe’s Beth Daley on how global warming affects New England and the staff of The Oregonian in Portland on modern microprocessor innovation.
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