The great paradox of our healthcare system is the extraordinary physicians who train and practice across our country, and how challenging it is for families to access their expertise and talents.
My personal journey to founding Summus began early on when my family faced complex health issues. In each case, the long march to answers was an immense and unique challenge—finding the right doctors, assessing treatment options, and getting answers to our questions. As with so many who need to make medical decisions, the resources, time, and feeling of helplessness in navigating our health system can be daunting. Since that time, I have always been convinced there must be a better way.
In my professional career, I have seen how access to the right experts can accelerate insights and impact business decisions in significant ways. Leveraging a targeted network of experts can turn a plodding, narrow research process into a precise exercise where multiple dimensions of a question can be explored in short order. There is a reason some of the smartest companies and investors have used expert-driven services to support their business decisions.
There is a strong parallel between the paths professionals and families embark upon to seek answers to their questions and navigate unfamiliar territory. For both, finding the right expertise can lead to better decisions and a clear path to better outcomes. Yet until now, there was no way for families to easily and quickly access a network of top physicians.
A broken system
As consumers of healthcare, most of us are unprepared to assess a physician’s quality or relevance to our needs. We overly rely on personal referrals or local networks to find a doctor. Moreover, accessing top-tier medical knowledge is incredibly difficult due to plan restrictions, lack of transparency, and geographic distance. It can take weeks or months to see a top specialist, and with the typical doctor visit lasting about 15 minutes, the richness of the doctor-patient interaction has deteriorated.
For US-based physicians, many of whom are sought out by patients all over the world, frustration with our existing system is high. Doctors are leaving the medical profession at alarming rates. Today, just 45% of physicians say they would choose their specialty again, down from 61% five years ago. By 2025, projections estimate that we may see a shortage of up to 60,000 specialist physicians.
A better way
We built a marketplace that brings together the best minds in medicine and the people who need to access their talents and wisdom.
With Summus, families connect directly with leading US physicians from anywhere in the world through a secure platform, within days. We empower families to gain expert insights whenever health questions arise. We help families assess diagnoses, understand treatment options, better manage ongoing health issues, and discover cutting-edge insights on preventive care.
Our marketplace has attracted world-class physicians across our health system, available within days to our members. Today, our physician network includes access to over 4,000 exceptional doctors across top-ranked hospitals in the US.
And while our technology connects our member families to the best medical expertise faster than conventional paths allow, we firmly believe that human relationships are paramount to helping families navigate through their health concerns. Families want to speak with someone they trust and whose intelligence, experience, and empathy shine through. Our dedicated team of highly-trained staff doctors and service professionals provide families with the support and intelligent guidance that is so lacking in our health system.
Summus is creating a different healthcare experience. By removing the guesswork and guiding families to the right expert for their needs, we transform the process for answering health questions while allowing the world’s best physicians to share their talents with families around the world.
I’m grateful to our founding team, incredible partners, and our network of outstanding physicians for coming together around an important opportunity to make a difference in the lives of families everywhere.
