Tweets from the right influencers was all it took to skyrocket the interest and use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.
Although a study on the treatment was published without a peer review or viable methodology, it became a much-discussed topic after tweets from Tesla billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
That’s the type of misinformation Ashish Advani wants to prevent with his startup InpharmD, which has a database of summarized, reputable medical studies that medical professionals can use to compare and research different types of treatment.
Using pharmacists and artificial intelligence, InpharmD has summarized about 5,000 studies so far. Advani’s goal is 21 million.
“It’s pretty messed up that you can compare the effectiveness or cost of a blender on Amazon, but you can’t do it for a drug,” Advani said. “That’s what we’re building.”
Advani, a pharmacist by trade, started InpharmD in 2018 as an app that let doctors get live feedback from pharmacists. Now, the app is about 94% automated in order to scale the studies offered in the database. Pharmacists fact check the summaries.
Five healthcare systems in the Southeast use the product, including Atrium Medical Center and Wellstar Health System. Once InpharmD gains credibility with physicians, Advani plans to release it to patients, providing information about effects, research and costs of different treatments.
Healthcare facilities can pilot the program for three months, which also shows InpharmD the types of questions medical professionals will ask. Emory Healthcare is currently in the pilot stage.
InpharmD finished Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y-Combinator accelerator earlier this year, a program that Advani said helped him understand the business side of building the startup, such as how to sell the product to new customers. They also received $125,000 in seed funding, which went toward sales efforts and refining the AI technology to be 100% effective in its summaries, Advani said.
Besides YC, Advani and co-founder and chief technology officer Tulasee Rao Chintha have bootstrapped InpharmD, which has over $1 million in annual recurring revenue. They’re looking to raise their first funding round later this year and hope to triple the company's size.
Right now, the startup is located in Atlanta Tech Village. There are four employees and about 40 contractors who help summarize and check the medical studies.
