After spending more than two years in stealth mode developing a database that includes nearly every practicing doctor in America and experiences from more than 188 million people, digital health startup Amino has launched its consumer healthcare search platform designed to help consumers make confident health care decisions, starting with the doctors they choose. Amino’s new personalized service allows people to find and book an appointment with doctors based on their experience with specific conditions or procedures, accepted insurance, and more. In addition to the launch of its product, the startup has also announced $19.4 million in pre-launch funding from Accel, Charles River Ventures (CRV), Rock Health, and more than a dozen individual investors.
In addition to its new personalized service , Amino will be able to leverage these data to offer insight into medical conditions and potential outcomes based on a number of variables. As an example, they will soon be releasing insights around C-sections that show how likely you are to have one and where rates are highest based on location, age, number of pregnancies, etc.
How It Works
Today, most Americans must rely on a small and inconsistent amount of information to help them with their health care decisions, and if they’re lucky they receive good recommendations from friends or family. Amino’s service allows people to make decisions based on the real world history of more than 893,000 doctors in America. People searching on Amino.com are matched with doctors who have seen people like them – with the same condition or procedure needs, age, and sex – and people can filter by additional factors such as location and insurance.
Amino then takes care of the appointment booking right from the results or doctor’s profile, and helps navigate scheduling logistics with convenience in mind. The ability to find and schedule care is just the beginning. Amino, with its ever-growing database, aims to help people make other important health care decisions about treatment, costs, facility searches, and more.
“Health care is an essential part of our society, yet the process is not oriented around those who matter most – the people getting care. Every day, we make important decisions that drastically affect our lives without enough information to feel confident,” said David Vivero, CEO and co-founder of Amino in an official statement. “Amino’s mission is to change this, giving everyone access to never-before-seen data and insights to become more informed and take charge of their health care. We’re starting with the search to find the right doctor, but the potential to use our data to help people navigate their health care choices is massive.”
The startup is led by serial entrepreneur Co-founder and CEO David Vivero, a former VP at Zillow, who also co-founded apartment rental startup RentJuice back in 2009, which was acquired by Zillow for $40 million and is now part of Zillow rentals. Based in San Francisco, Amino will be utilize the funding to further build out its database, products, and team to guide people through the frustrating complexities of the health care system. Amino has also formed an Advisory Board with leaders from the academic, health care, privacy, and consumer technology fields to ensure its approach, data methods, and services incorporate best practices. Its current members are Dr. Carol Cain, Dr. Ashish Jha, Udi Manber, Dr. Arnold Milstein, Dr. Philip Pizzo, Joy Pritts, Bryan Sivak, and Dr. Robert Wachter as Advisory Board chairman.
