Michael Samuelson knows the downside of search engines when it comes to culling information about cancer. When he realized a few years ago that he was one of the rare male cases of breast cancer, he went online and read an article that gave him only a 20 percent chance of survival. Samuelson, a 25-year veteran of developing programs and promotions related to health care, now serves on NexCura's advisory panel. Patient confidentiality is built into the system. No personal identification information is required to use the profiler, and NexCura does not sell any information that could identify a patient individually or personally.
Patients create their own user name and password to access their accounts.
Making it work As with most Internet plays, NexCura's profiling and other website services are free to consumers. It's plan is to make its money by charging access fees to hospitals, HMOs, managed care organizations, cancer centers, and other organizations, using a mixture of access fees and sponsorship with major corporations and pharmaceutical companies, and generating added revenue from data sales to the pharmaceutical companies. NexCura is also looking at partnerships to carry its vision forward. Stern confirms that a filing to go public is likely by the third or fourth quarter. As it grows, the company intends to move beyond cancer to use its profiling technology in other health areas.