If you are ill, how much is it worth to have the best medical minds focused on your problem? The answer is probably "priceless," as they say in the commercials-or as much as you can possibly afford.

But money isn't the only obstacle to creating a medical dream team. Finding the best doctors for a given condition takes a lot of research. And once you find them, they are usually spread all over the nation and the world, and getting them in one room is a huge logistical hurdle.

That is, until recently.

In January, two doctors and a technology expert created ExpertConsensus (www.expertconsensus.com), a health advisory firm in New York City that brings together the world's top doctors to provide clients with a second opinion on their conditions. Working with the patient's attending physician, these experts help identify alternative treatments or, in some cases, experimental approaches.

The firm was partly started out under the belief that the nation's current system for delivering medical care is broken, because patients are on their own when it comes to finding second opinions.

"Every patient wonders if he or she is getting the best treatment and they want more opinions," says Dr. Robert C.J. Krasner, chairman of the ExpertConsensus medical advisory board, who maintains a private practice.

"Every patient we have seen, we have been able to help by giving them something the patient or treating physician did not know," adds Dr. Jean-Luc "J.L." Neptune, chief operating officer and a co-founder of ExpertConsensus. "We have been able to give them hope and a new chance for survival or for a better life."

ExpertConsensus does not provide medical treatment directly. It acts as a middleman to provide its clients with more medical expertise. The firm charges $25,000 per project, which includes the cost of researching and rounding up top experts, and coordinating the flow of information between them and a client's physician.

After consulting with a client and his or her doctors, ExpertConsensus uses its proprietary database and the professional connections of its staff to identify up to ten to 15 experts who could address the client's condition. After further screening, the list is reduced to three to five experts.

The experts may have varied backgrounds, according to ExpertConsensus. Some are practicing physicians, while others are researchers, working either independently or with an institution such as a university. The key, according to the firm, is that their peers and the academic community regard them as leaders in their areas of specialty-with the ability to bring cutting-edge treatments to clients.

Keeping a client's primary care physician involved in the process is vital, according to the firm's founders.

"I am a firm believer that each patient needs a primary treating doctor to be the quarterback-someone who knows the patient and everything that has been done," Krasner says. "But because of the way the current medical system operates, the treating physician can recommend a patient to a specialist, but then he may not hear from the patient for extended periods of time after the referral is made. And the primary care doctor may not know the best specialist to send the patient to."

Once the experts are brought in, they are given all of a patient's relevant medical records. This is followed by consultation between them and the client's treating physician. The doctors meet face-to-face if possible, but when doctors can't get together in one room, conferences are conducted over the Internet with teleconferencing tools.

"Our goal is to bring together the experts to consult on a case by giving them the ability to interact with their peers when they are located at different institutions and many miles apart," Neptune says.

Neptune has a history in this kind of work. He co-founded Healogica Inc. in 2007, a technology company that connected patients with clinical trial opportunities. Five years before that he worked for Gerson Lehman Group, which maintained a database from the world's leading medical experts. In addition to a medical degree, Neptune has a master's degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Neptune founded ExpertConsensus with Richard D. Forman, who is CEO of the firm. Forman has a technology and health industry background and was a co-founder of Vitals.com, a leading physician finder service.

"There has been a transformation of thinking by patients in recent years," Forman says. "They still trust their doctors but they are not content with one person's assessment. Our society has developed lots of tools to deal with every other part of people's lives, but health care is stuck in the past. Many studies show 20% to 25% of medical cases in the United States are misdiagnosed.

"Can you imagine if you went to FedEx and they said there is only a 75% chance your package will arrive at its destination? They would be out of business," Forman says.

Forman and Neptune-who got to know each other at various medical conferences-decided to fill this service gap by using their expertise in medicine and technology to create ExpertConsensus.

ExpertConsensus has access to a proprietary database of almost every doctor in the United States and many abroad. Neptune used the experience he gained at evaluating doctors at GLG to create a proprietary evaluation system for ExpertConsensus.
Krasner, meanwhile, formerly served as medical director for a top international holding company for ten years and before that was an attending physician to Congress for a decade.

"Between Dr. Krasner's years with Congress and my time with GLG, we have a high-level relationship with many leading physicians here and abroad," Neptune says. "We can gain access to them in a way that someone without a personal connection cannot do."

The expert panels created by ExpertConsensus provide clients with a roadmap for future possible treatments and the attending physician is given a "blueprint" to act on. Clinical trials are included as well as experimental drugs.

While ExpertConsensus cannot move its clients ahead of anyone to get into clinical trials, it does make sure its clients have all the information needed to request a place in a trial, which can dramatically reduce the time for admittance, Neptune says. Clinical trials and drug development can take up to 20 years and most patients do not have the luxury of waiting that long, he adds.

"Many [clients] have a range of questions regarding their situation that we get answered by the panel," Neptune says. "Our reports are thorough and the treating physician will go over this report with the client in detail."

Krasner believes ExpertConsensus helps doctors as much as it helps the wealthy patients who can afford its services because it facilitates the interaction between doctors and researchers, thereby advancing medical knowledge.

A recent case involved a business executive with advanced lung cancer.

"ExpertConsensus worked with the client's treating physician to assemble and curate the client's medical record and then engaged top lung cancer experts from several institutions," including MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta, and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, says Neptune.

"The experts recommended a customized chemotherapy plan based on the client's history and recommended molecular profiling of the client's tumor to identify the specific 'tumor markers' that would allow the doctors to better target the client's cancerous cells," he says. "The client has had a number of follow-up studies since the expert panel was convened earlier this year, which show no progression of his disease."

Neptune and Forman would like to see their service expanded to other areas, such as organ transplants.

"There has got to be a better way-a better way to get information to patients and provide them with insight regarding diagnoses and therapies that are up to date and relevant to their personal situation," Forman says.