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.