Can Medical Diagnoses Be Crowd-Sourced? For Over 500, The Answer Is 'Yes!'

We've all heard about finance crowd-sourcing — that is, raising funds by reaching out to online investors around the world.

Today Here & Now focuses on a similar idea, except instead of raising money, a unique company called CrowdMed.com, seeks diagnoses for rare and complicated medical conditions.

Patients submit their information, including medical history and medical records, online and then wait for medical detectives from around the globe to weigh in.

Over the last two years about 500 people have been correctly diagnosed, not only saving lives, but also hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care, since the average patient has been sick for eight years, has seen at least a dozen doctors and continues to seek care.

Jared Heyman is founder and CEO of CrowdMed.com. He joins Robin to discuss why he founded CrowdMed.com, and how it works.