Imagine being on the operating table and about to drift off from the anesthesia, when you hear your surgeon comment: “I’m excited I get to do this operation. I don’t get to do many of them.” It’s not exactly a confidence inducing moment. But that’s exactly what happened to Mitch Rothschild when he went in for surgery on his Achilles tendon.
And that got him thinking during his recovery period. Why hadn’t he known beforehand that his surgeon rarely performed this particular procedure? And then he says it occurred to him that “there was no good source of data about doctors.”
So Rothschild decided to do something about that, even though he didn’t have any prior healthcare experience. What he was able to do was use his web expertise to create a destination where patients can learn about doctors. It’s called “Vitals.” And with financial support from athena health, the site has grown to become a source of rich information that makes it easier to research and shop for healthcare.
Now three years later, Inc. magazine lists Vitals as one of the leading and fastest growing health care sites in the U.S., comparing it to WebMD and the Mayo Clinic. Around 12 million patients have already used Vitals to locate the right doctor for them.
And Rothschild says bringing his idea to life wasn’t all that difficult: “Consumer-facing healthcare tools have been a decade behind every Web and big data innovation in the U.S. When we bring stuff that was really hot in 2008 and 2009 to healthcare in 2014, it’s like we’re Magellan. Healthcare needs more people like me.”
By the way, his surgery was a success and so is his highly profitable company. Good for You, Mitch Rothschild for filling a need in the marketplace to help consumers with one of the most important decisions they can make!
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