MedNetwork Files IPO Prospectus: Powering Drug and MedTech Commercialization Through Healthcare Social Network Analytics

In this era of rapid information technology development, social media has become a new frontier where healthcare services urgently need to make breakthroughs. According to VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat), 60% of physicians believe that social media has improved the quality of care received by patients. Patients can use social media to search for medical information and gain a better understanding of their own care.

Meanwhile, healthcare professionals can engage in medical research and discussions with peers on social networks, leverage these platforms to access patient care information, and build professional development plans and networks.

MedNetwork, as a SaaS cloud application, is dedicated to building an intelligent, integrated, and networked healthcare system for all healthcare stakeholders. The company’s primary objective is to conduct social network research and implement marketing strategies for novel pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

On the one hand, patients can access medical assistance, update their medical history records, and manage their prescriptions through this website; on the other hand, relevant healthcare providers can also benefit from it, enabling them to deliver more comprehensive medical services to patients.

Through MedNetwork, users can enjoy services such as online appointment booking, information tracking and follow-up, and cross-domain communication. Throughout the user experience, MedNetwork maintains strict confidentiality regarding user information and usage records.

According to VCBeat, MedNetwork is a key product under Thrymr Software. As a B2B software development company, Thrymr Software focuses on solving product-related challenges for companies worldwide. These products typically include web applications, mobile applications (for Android/iOS), and IoT systems.

MedNetwork is based in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. Upon its establishment in 2009, the company secured $5 million in Series A financing from Excel Venture Management. The funds were primarily allocated to commercializing its technology and building user-centric social data assets.

In September 2010, CEO and co-founder Larry Miller announced the formal establishment of the MedNetwork Scientific Advisory Board. The board’s primary mandate is to ensure the seamless integration of social networking technologies into critical areas of healthcare, including population health, medical innovation, and pharmaceutical distribution.

Professor Nicholas Christakis, Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder, stated that MedNetwork is the first commercial technology he and his colleagues have promoted at Harvard University. He firmly believes that the team’s professional expertise and cutting-edge scientific and technological capabilities will position MedNetwork at the forefront of medical social networking.

“Compared to other social media platforms, MedNetwork’s primary focus is on curating and tracking existing data rather than simply inviting the public to join the network,” said Miller, CEO and co-founder. “Professor Christakis has conducted extensive research on social network analysis models and their applications. I believe healthcare is an excellent starting point,” Miller analyzed. “It is a field where data is available but often underutilized.”

Furthermore, Miller stated that MedNetwork’s Scientific Advisory Board will be responsible for providing social network analysis and emerging insights in the healthcare sector to the platform. Currently, in addition to Professor Christakis, who serves as Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder, the board comprises nine professionals from diverse fields such as health technology, information technology, and social sciences.

Nicholas Christakis focuses on research in biosocial science, network science, and behavioral genetics. He primarily oversees the management of the Yale Institute for Network Science and serves as Co-Director of the Yale Network Science Institute. Additionally, he has held academic appointments in the Departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University.

In 1995, Nicholas Christakis began his academic career as a professor at the University of Chicago. In 2011, he moved his laboratory to Harvard University and was appointed Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Medicine at Harvard University.

During his tenure at Harvard University, he also oversaw the historic Pforzheimer House, one of the 12 undergraduate residential houses at Harvard. In 2013, Professor Christakis moved his laboratory back to Yale University.

Currently, Professor Christakis primarily focuses on research related to healthcare and social networks. This work involves a series of applications that create network science and mathematical models aimed at understanding human health dynamics in the evolution of longitudinal networks. Additionally, he concentrates on investigating through experiments the forms of altruism propagation within social networks as well as the genetic and evolutionary factors influencing social network structures.

In 2009, Professor Christakis was named to Time Magazine’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” In 2010, he was recognized by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the world’s top thinkers.

In 2009, Professor Christakis collaborated with Dr. James Fowler, a member of the MedNetwork Scientific Advisory Board, to publish a book on social networks titled *Connected*. The book explores the formation of social networks and their impact on real-world human behaviors, including effects on emotions, intimate relationships, health, economic operations, and politics.

Furthermore, the book provides an in-depth analysis of how internet technology has transformed the modes of connection between people, between people and objects, between people and information, and between humans and nature. This work is regarded as the most significant contribution to the social sciences since *Six Degrees of Separation*. It not only received the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice award but has also been translated into nearly 20 foreign languages.

Dr. James Fowler received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2003 and is currently a professor at the University of California, San Diego. His work focuses on the intersection of natural and social sciences, with an emphasis on social networks, behavioral science, evolutionary biology, political science, genetics, and big data.

In 2010, Dr. Fowler was appointed as a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and was named one of the world’s top thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine.

CEO and Co-Founder Miller stated that the academic experts and industry leaders on MedNetwork’s board of directors will ensure the company becomes a leader in the fields of social sciences and healthcare. Meanwhile, MedNetwork will enhance the efficiency of the healthcare industry by expanding communication and collaboration with diverse clients.

In August 2010, MedNetwork established an exclusive strategic partnership with Healthways to jointly explore how to apply the scientific theories of social networks to population health management. Healthways is a provider of specialized, comprehensive solutions for human health, focusing on researching and eliminating risk factors that affect population health and optimizing care for patients with chronic diseases.

According to the website, all healthcare participants are distributed across different modules. Its user base includesPatient，Physician，Clinic，Diagnostic Center，Blood Bank，Pharmaceutical CompanyandDrug. During the use of the website, users must log in with their personal information by selecting the corresponding module. The access rights and operational scope for different users are as follows (examples):

Patient

-    Finding the Best Doctors in the City

-    Schedule an Online Appointment with a Doctor

-    Digital Personal Medical Record

-    Online Reports and Related Prescriptions

Doctor

-    New Patient Information Search

-    Calendar Management and Appointment Information

-    Digital Patient Records

-    Refer the patient to another physician.

-    Effective Revenue Tracking

Clinic

-    Monitor Multiple Clinic Branches

-    Simplify Patient Information Management

-    Related Appointment Management

-    Tracking of Income and Expenditures

Pharmaceutical Company

-    Connecting Doctors and Patients

-    Receive the doctor's prescription

-    Upload and Send Instant Reports

-    Track the history of all prescriptions

-    Create Customized Test Reports

Blood Bank

-    Connecting Donors with Patients

-    Track Blood Donation Information

-    Manage blood components and conduct inventory

-    Track Blood-Related Issues

-    Income and Expense Tracking

MedNetwork aims to provide barrier-free, cost-free technical support to all healthcare stakeholders and to build a one-stop solution platform for website users. MedNetwork firmly believes that if every branch of the medical industry can communicate, interact, learn from each other, and share data, the efficiency of the healthcare industry will be significantly improved.

By leveraging the computational tools developed by Professor Christakis’s research team, physicians’ prescribing patterns, the formation of professional relationships, and the adoption trends of new drugs become clearly visible. MedNetwork has identified that certain physicians wield significant influence within specific specialties; for instance, when these key opinion leaders prescribe new medications, their colleagues in the same field tend to take notice and follow suit.

CEO and Co-Founder Miller stated that by leveraging data on drug resources and physician information, MedNetwork can predict commonly prescribed medications among physicians, thereby helping pharmaceutical companies clarify their marketing targets.

Meanwhile, by collecting data on physician collaborations, referral content, prescription records, and patient health information, MedNetwork’s social analytics tools can promptly analyze the data to identify influential professionals within the medical community. Patients will have priority access to select relevant physicians and clinics.