Building a consulting network of the best physicians in the U.S. from the nation’s best hospitals has brought the health care startup Grand Rounds $40 million in new financing. The San Francisco-based company, which previously operated as ConsultingMD, sells companies a service that gives employees access to healthcare advice and treatment from specialists across the U.S. It’s like getting treated by the staff at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, except these doctors are real and a patient doesn’t have to travel to New Jersey to get a consultation. “The premise is exceedingly simple. Better doctors provide better results for treatments,” says Owen Tripp, the co-founder of Grand Rounds and the former chief operating officer atReputation.com. “We have the ability to solve really complex medical problems no matter where [the patients] are.”
Grand Rounds has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Greylock Partners. The San Francisco startup, which provides medical second opinions online, plans to use the capital for research and development, sales and marketing, and other purposes. Grand Rounds now has about 35 business customers, including Jamba Juice and Hightail, covering more than one million people. The three-year-old company previously raised $11 million from Venrock and Harrison Metal, both of which joined the latest round. The roughly fifty-person company fits into what is sometimes called concierge medical services, providing a layer of assistance that goes beyond the typical employer-provided health plan. The company’s Expert Opinion service, available online and though apps, allows patients to run their medical issues past top specialists using an algorithm that matches needs to expertise. The doctors can review the person’s medical history, diagnoses and treatment plans and, when appropriate, propose alternative paths. The experts recommend major changes in diagnoses or treatments about 65 percent of the time, Chief Executive Owen Tripp said in an earlier interview.
