Well, according to their FAQ, they offer a trial service. So your friend would not have to continue to a larger report if the trial seemed to be indicating low benefits of further research.
Can I try MetaMed before committing to a large purchase?
Yes. If your case has a larger budget, we can start with a smaller, trial report to ensure quality of service, and confirm that MetaMed is the right choice for you.
And they also offer Financial aid—There is almost no information about this posted, other than that it exists. I guess you would have to call to determine more about how it worked. If your friend did qualify, that would be a substantial boon:
Once you have consulted with our medical team, if you need financial aid to help with the cost of your MetaMed service, we will email you an application right away.
And it looks like overall there are at least three tiers of potential research:
Those results do not impress me as to the value of their research. There is nothing there that isn’t covered by Up-to-Date (http://www.uptodate.com/home) and every hospital I’ve done stats work for (several, all over the country both community and academic) has provided their physicians with up to date access.
Your best bet (apparently) would be simply asking your physician for the up-to-date report for your diagnosis. If your physician does not have up-to-date access, get a referral to the nearest academic center.
I’m unsure why I’ve been voted down here- if shminux’s friend wants a version of a report similar in quality to what metamed can provide she can ask her physician if the physician has up-to-date (or an other research aggregator) access. If the physician doesn’t, its potentially a measure of quality (which can otherwise be hard to judge), and she should get a referral to an academic medical center, which will definitely have something like up-to-date available. This seems to me like decently practical advice for those who have insurance, but don’t have the money for metamed. I’m still relatively new so I’m requesting explicit feedback to improve the quality of my posts.
Edited to Add: According to the company, > 90% of American academic hospitals already have subscribed to Up-to-Date, so getting a referral to an academic center has a great chance of getting you to someone with already-paid-for-access to this sort of report.
I’m glad you linked competition, so we can compare similar industries for reference (I asked a very similar thing about Watson.) One item that stood out on their site:
Dr. Gordon Guyatt from McMaster University, who coined the term “evidence-based medicine,” makes 6-8 visits to UpToDate per year to work with UpToDate editors. Watch him in action with our physician editors as they review and analyze medical evidence that informs UpToDate graded recommendations.
And I was also able to find their methods for that grading as well, in case anyone wants to compare Meta Research Methods across Meta Research Organizations:
Sleep apnea seems like something regular doctors should be able to figure out, and I know gout has at least been known for a long time. Are these meant to be examples of what the reports look like more than examples of how Metamed can find obscure treatments? $5000 seems a bit much for someone to be told ‘get checked for sleep apnea and lose weight’.
Well, according to their FAQ, they offer a trial service. So your friend would not have to continue to a larger report if the trial seemed to be indicating low benefits of further research.
http://metamed.com/faqs
And they also offer Financial aid—There is almost no information about this posted, other than that it exists. I guess you would have to call to determine more about how it worked. If your friend did qualify, that would be a substantial boon:
http://metamed.com/financial-aid
And it looks like overall there are at least three tiers of potential research:
http://metamed.com/personalized-research-for-individuals
And here are examples of reports at each tier:
http://metamed.com/static/Meta_Sleep.pdf (Standard)
http://metamed.com/static/Meta_H_Pylori.pdf (Plus)
http://metamed.com/static/Meta_Gout.pdf (Concierge)
Hopefully that information will help with deciding whether or not to contact them for more information.
Those results do not impress me as to the value of their research. There is nothing there that isn’t covered by Up-to-Date (http://www.uptodate.com/home) and every hospital I’ve done stats work for (several, all over the country both community and academic) has provided their physicians with up to date access.
Your best bet (apparently) would be simply asking your physician for the up-to-date report for your diagnosis. If your physician does not have up-to-date access, get a referral to the nearest academic center.
I’m unsure why I’ve been voted down here- if shminux’s friend wants a version of a report similar in quality to what metamed can provide she can ask her physician if the physician has up-to-date (or an other research aggregator) access. If the physician doesn’t, its potentially a measure of quality (which can otherwise be hard to judge), and she should get a referral to an academic medical center, which will definitely have something like up-to-date available. This seems to me like decently practical advice for those who have insurance, but don’t have the money for metamed. I’m still relatively new so I’m requesting explicit feedback to improve the quality of my posts.
Edited to Add: According to the company, > 90% of American academic hospitals already have subscribed to Up-to-Date, so getting a referral to an academic center has a great chance of getting you to someone with already-paid-for-access to this sort of report.
I’m glad you linked competition, so we can compare similar industries for reference (I asked a very similar thing about Watson.) One item that stood out on their site:
http://www.uptodate.com/home/editorial
And I was also able to find their methods for that grading as well, in case anyone wants to compare Meta Research Methods across Meta Research Organizations:
http://www.uptodate.com/home/grading-guide
Sleep apnea seems like something regular doctors should be able to figure out, and I know gout has at least been known for a long time. Are these meant to be examples of what the reports look like more than examples of how Metamed can find obscure treatments? $5000 seems a bit much for someone to be told ‘get checked for sleep apnea and lose weight’.