Q&A With OrganizedWisdom's Chief Medical Officer, Howard Krein, MD, PhD

When we set out to create a human-powered search service for health, our goal was to create a service that doctors would recommend to their patients and families to use.  Quality control and credibility has been the essential focus of our team ever since we launched.  From day one we have worked with doctors on all aspects of our product development to make sure we are building a service that can be trusted and will be most useful to people.

Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Howard Krein, is responsible for shaping our quality standards.  He works closely with our Medical Director, Dr. Scott Pearlman, and our physician review team to make sure we build a service designed to help the most people.

We thought it would be helpful to post this recent Q&A interview we did with Dr. Krein to give our users more background about his thinking and share his insights into the OrganizedWisdom quality process and why he believes it is so valuable to integrate experts and doctors into the process of guiding people to better health information.

Question and Answer Interview with Dr. Howard Krein, Chief Medical Officer, OrganizedWisdom.

   1. You've said that OrganizedWisdom is like having a doctor in the family.  Can you share what you mean by this and describe some of the ways OrganizedWisdom is helping people manage their health?

         One of the interesting things that happened as I went through medical school was my family and friends started to call me with healthcare questions. They were looking for guidance in navigating topics that were sometimes complicated but always important. If you ask any doctor, they'll tell that the same thing happened to them... It's one of the perks of having a physician in the family.  The advantage of having someone close to you who is knowledgeable, always available and accessible to answer healthcare questions is a benefit few people enjoy. As a physician, you are limited in being available to your patients at that same level. At OrganizedWisdom, we are dedicated to bringing that same level of accessibility of healthcare information to people all across the world. Our goal is to provide easy access to quality healthcare information to everyone all the time. When we do quality reviews of our WisdomCards, we look to make sure all the information that I would want my family to have about a topic is represented on the Wisdomcard. This is one of our standards.

Several months ago, I bumped into a friend who told me “I almost called you the other evening”. She went on to tell me that she was diagnosed with a thyroid mass and although her doctor answered the questions she asked, when she got home that evening she thought of more questions. Instead of just calling me, she went to OrganizedWisdom and found all of the answers to her questions. This crystalized the standard we are shooting for so we can help more people by providing instant access to quality healthcare information and you trust, anytime day or night.

And as we innovate we keep going back to this concept of creating a service that is like having a doctor in the family.  Our new LiveWisdom service is a great example of this because it makes it easy for people to chat LIVE with doctors directly from our WisdomCards.

   2. What's the role of the Chief Medical Officer at OrganizedWisdom and why did you decide to join the team?

When Steve Krein and Unity Stoakes (Steve is my brother and co-founded the company with Unity Stoakes) were starting OrganizedWisdom, they came to me and asked for guidance about what they were building from a medical doctor's perspective.  They were trying to create something radically different and more useful, but wanted to make sure they were building a service that doctors would want to recommend to their own patients.  So joining OrganizedWisdom was a no-brainer for me because I had so much confidence in the team and the vision. As a physician, I spend much of my day as a patient advocate and educator, so this opportunity is a meaningful extension of what I already do. I feel very lucky to have the ability to be involved in a company that strives to provide the best health information and resources to anyone who needs it.

Being Chief Medical Officer at OrganizedWisdom means that I am ultimately responsible for setting the quality and accuracy standards of our service.  I also work with our Editorial Director, Guide Manager and Medical Director in overseeing the quality controls and training programs for our physician reviewer and guide programs. As a practicing physician, I understand what patients need and want because I am interacting with them everyday. Our goal is not only to provide all of the pertinent information on healthcare topics and resources, it is also to make sure that information is the up-to-date and the best that’s available. That means that on top of creating hand crafted search results (WisdomCards), we constantly review and update these WisdomCards. That’s the OrganizedWisdom difference.

The OrganizedWisdom team starts where traditional search engines end. We take the best of what’s out there, and make it better.

Finding quality healthcare information shouldn't be a time-consuming process. We are solving this problem by adding the wisdom of trained expert search guides and physician reviewers to the power of computerized search tools and social bookmarking sites. This human-powered model helps us deliver far superior health search results by eliminating search index spam from low-quality websites, links to duplicitive libraries of licensed health content or potentially dangerous web sites.

   3. What feedback are you getting from your patients about OrganizedWisdom?  Do you have any examples of how people are using the service?

It's amazing to hear how helpful OrganizedWisdom has been for so many of my patients! As a practicing physician at an academic university (Jefferson University Hospital Philadelphia, PA) I have the privilege of being part of a busy practice.  Along with trying to answer all the questions my patients have, I feel I have the responsibility to help them find quality sources to answer questions that come up after they leave my office. OrganizedWisdom has given me the service that I have always wanted to share with my patients so they could help themselves.

OrganizedWisdom gives physicians the ability to send patients to a website that reviews and organizes the best information online thereby allowing people to continue to educate themselves and help them get a clearer understanding of their health questions. In addition, patients who use OrganizedWisdom prior to coming into our office feel that they are better prepared to engage in a quality conversation regarding their issues…and this can be very helpful.

    4. What feedback are you getting from other doctors and medical professionals about OrganizedWisdom?

Feedback from other healthcare providers has been very positive. As I mentioned, whether patients use OrganizedWisdom before or after a visit, there seems to be a perceived benefit by most healthcare providers I have spoken with. Having a free service that provides patients with easy access to the best information available in easy to navigate Wisdomcards, helps patients to prepare for their appointments and helps streamline some to the conversations that must take place. This is advantageous to both the patient and provider. I have also gotten feedback that many providers use our site as a starting point for their own searches.

   5. OrganizedWisdom has been working hard on a new service that will give people instant access to chat with a doctor from a WisdomCard.  Can you tell us about this new LiveWisdom service and how do you think it will help people?

I believe Live Wisdom is one of the most exciting developments in healthcare today. We believe that asking doctors questions should be easy, affordable, and accessible to all.  LiveWisdom gives people the access that they want to physicians and healthcare providers anytime day or night.

No longer will people have to worry over an unanswered healthcare question, even if it is in the middle of the night. Whether a person has insurance or not, whether they have a primary care physician or not, whether they are employed or not, we are making sure they have access to affordable, vetted, healthcare information from medical doctors and health experts.  Although there is no replacing visiting your own doctor, we are going to provide qualified and professional physicians to help bridge the gap between what you know and what you need to know.  No longer will someone have to wait till their physician calls them back to get answers.  The LiveWisdom physicians are informed experts who can help you understand conditions, medicines, and answer your questions.

With the click of a button, people will gain access to information that will help them make better healthcare decisions and possibly help facilitate a more productive visit with their own physician.  As we role out this new innovation in health information I think its becoming easier to see why OrganizedWisdom truly is like have a doctor in the family.

   6. Can you give some insight to how OrganizedWisdom will continue to evolve?

At OrganizedWisdom, we are constantly making improvements and enhancements. Healthcare and health information is not static so we are always looking to provide the most useful resources available. By staying active in academic medicine I have to be aware and understand theses changes. Our team and I continually discuss how we can make OrganizedWisdom even better and more useful to people. I ask my patients, as well as our users, what they want and how we can make the site better. So, how we evolve, partly depends on what users need.

Currently, in addition to LiveWisdom, we are adding additional features such as EmergingWisdom, WisdomCollections designed to make it easier for people to find what they need.

   7. What are you most excited about in the Health 2.0 space that you think will have a true impact to improve the lives of your patients?

I am excited about all of the inovation and entrepreneurialism that is pushing the industry forward.  We are in a stage where we are making dramatic leaps and bounds because new ideas are getting funded, new thinking is helping break down old barriers, and ultimately Health 2.0 is changing the way people access health care and health information.  This is a good thing for all of us.

   8. Tell us about your medical background and what made you want to become a medical doctor?

Becoming a physician was sort of a circuitous path for me…I always had an interest in medicine but initially wanted to be a scientist. After college, I decided to pursue graduate school and I earned a Masters degree in Neuroscience and then a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology. During that time my interests evolved to include clinical medicine. I then earned my M.D. at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia (one of the oldest medical schools in the United States). I stayed in Philadelphia for two internships (Emergancy Medicine and General Surgery) as well as a residency Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.  I finished my training by completing a fellowship in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at MCV/VCU (Virginia Commenwealth University) in Richmond Virginia. After teaching and practicing in Virginia as a Clinical Instructor at both MCV/VCU as well as at McGuire Veterans Medical Center I returned to Philadelphia and took a position at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital as a Assistant Professor.

9. What's your favorite feature on OrganizedWisdom and why?

My favorite feature is LiveWisdom and I think it will have a dramatic impact in helping people get affordable access to doctors to ask their questions.