Roon wants to educate patients with fresh sourced information about their condition – TechCrunch

When individuals try to manage medical information and understand their condition, many often turn to Google or WebMD – both of which do little to verify or provide the latest information. But Roon plans to change this with a medical education platform for censored information, rigorously sourced from doctors, patients and caregivers.

By curating the data it provides around individual conditions, Roon is meant to reassure patients and caregivers that the data is accurate and well-sourced.

Rohan Ramakrishna, co-founder of Roon and also a neurosurgeon, said: “We pay for lip care to our caregivers, but there is so much more that can and should be done to get it. out their important role in health management. “And so when we developed this health information standard, we took all of that into account, so that we could meet the unique needs of both patients and caregivers in any given situation. any personal status.”

Along with Ramakrishna are former Pinterest director of creator partnerships, Vikram Bhaskaran, and technical partner, Arun Ranganathan. They enter the health technology space with Roon, hoping to innovate what it means to receive medical information after working on their own as caregivers.

Image credits: Roon

Bhaskaran and Ranganathan realized that finding information about a loved one’s condition was unnecessarily difficult. After connecting the idea with Ramakrishna, Roon was born.

Bhaskaran told TechCrunch in an interview: “There is so much medical misinformation… in 2022, it’s crazy that patients have nowhere to go to answer questions.

The company claims to be a “cloning medicine” for those who have questions but have nowhere to go.

Roon is meant to provide what they consider to be “medically tested” information to caregivers and patients about serious medical conditions. First, they only provide information regarding glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor, and have 200 active users. The company hopes to expand to include dementia, childhood cancer and ALS.

“Everything we build starts with finding professionals who are qualified and truly enable them to create content that is relevant to patients and caregivers,” says Bhaskaran.

Someone using the platform is provided with a medical starter – information organized to provide a general understanding of the condition; then they can ask specific questions if it hasn’t been answered on the platform’s FAQ.

Image credits: Roon

While the company claims to have little or no competition, it’s clear that anyone can do a simple Google search and get information (although it may not be as concise) or switch to WebMD (aggregate and summarize information). One thing the founders also emphasized to TechCrunch is that doctors often spend their time answering basic questions and not going into the depths of a medical condition — although for patients and caregivers, their doctors they can still be a source of information.

For more insight into a particular condition, patients and caregivers may want to hear directly from today’s specialists, as well as others who can directly share their experiences. That’s curated content that Roon hopes to deliver.

Despite being just over a year old, the company has already garnered support in the form of a $7.5 million seed round led by Firstmark, TMV and Sequoia, with participation from SV Angel, Maveron and M13. The company also has 11 angel investors and 4 advisors.

For now, the company says it’s “a bit ambivalent about where we’re headed because we’ve got some insight into how we’re going to do this, but all parts of it will come to an end.” should be better.” However, the founders told TechCrunch, the funds of this round will be used to expand their team and begin rolling out more eligibility information.

“Having all the time, energy and money to make shopping easier,” says Ramakrishna. “What if we could devote the same amount of energy and ingenuity to making the wellness experience so much better?”