About ConsumerMed

ConsumerMed's bold and ambitious mission is to organize and collect independent, evidence-based rankings on both prescription drugs and medical procedures that assist healthcare consumers in making more informed choices regarding medical treatment decisions.

The Company's foundation stems from the belief that every healthcare consumer deserves access to high quality and transparent information regarding the best medical treatment options. However, given the deeply entrenched layers of special interest that exists within our current healthcare system, consumers often receive treatments, which may or may not represent the best possible medical treatment. Moreover, because many physicians today seemingly need to work harder and see more patients to maintain their income, it has become increasingly difficult for them to stay abreast of the latest scientific research or clinical evidence.

The ConsumerMed treatment rankings address important attributes such as a treatment's effectiveness, safety, tolerability and cost. The ranking level is determined by a large group of nationally respected physician experts, within each medical specialty, who utilize some of the latest and most relevant scientific evidence in compiling their ranking evaluations. Once the medical experts have completed their rankings each individual submission is peer reviewed by our medical advisory committee to ensure the rankings or evaluations reflect both scientific integrity and credibility. Those that fail these standards are not included in the overall ranking results.

By utilizing a familiar 1-Star to 5-Star ranking format, our easy to understand approach to measuring healthcare quality, safety and cost empowers consumers to be a more informed patient and joint decision maker with their physician.

Our initial evidence based rankings will cover treatment interventions in the Cardiology, Mental Health, Neurology and the Urology categories. Please check back from time to time for updates and information regarding our launch of this value-added consumer healthcare information.

The U.S. Heath Care System: A Changing Landscape

The heightened demand for more transparent healthcare information on quality, safety and cost by consumers continues to accelerate for two major reasons. First, the Internet itself has emerged as a major communications medium and has fundamentally changed many sectors of the economy, including the marketing and sales of financial services, travel and entertainment, among others. The Internet is also changing the healthcare landscape, as more consumers utilize it as a convenient source for up-to-date health information and interactive decision-support tools. Until recently, quality healthcare information was not either readily accessible or easily understood. Most healthcare consumers, instead relied on their physicians, conversations with family and friends, their neighborhood library and magazines when they needed answers to healthcare questions. The Internet has transformed how consumers search and utilize healthcare information and sufficient evidence exists that demand for healthcare quality information on the web is increasing.

A second, but no less important key driver of consumer's increasing demand for better health information stems from the ongoing healthcare cost shifting from employers to employees. It is now estimated that the average employee is paying for about 25% of their overall healthcare costs, up remarkably from just 12% in 2001.

This cost shifting trend is likely to continue and reflects employer's response to unbridled healthcare cost increases and their desire to modify benefit plan designs that increase consumer out-of-pocket costs. At the same time, employers have begun taking other steps that are designed to motivate their members and employees to more closely evaluate their healthcare decisions in order to become more efficient users of the healthcare system. These nascent consumer directed healthcare tools include establishing innovative wellness programs and providing some early 'first generation' data on provider cost and quality.

While the thrust to a consumer healthcare model is a step in the right direction, there are emerging concerns...specifically that the risk of varying degrees of healthcare quality and dissatisfaction may also increase unless the consumer has access to meaningful and relevant healthcare information that is simple, transparent and easy to understand.