Healthcare social media company Within3, which describes itself as a LinkedIn for physicians, is looking overseas to help fuel its growth.
The Cleveland-based company has communities in about 10 countries, including Australia, Brazil, China and Germany, CEO Lance Hill said. “Global business will be an increasing part of our mix over the next few years,” he said. “That’s something we didn’t fully appreciate in the early days, but we’re definitely trying to capitalize on it now.”
Founded in 2004, Within3 has enjoyed what Hill called “rapid growth” recently, having doubled its employee numbers over the last year to more than 50. And like Cleveland Clinic spinoff Explorys, another of the luminaries of Cleveland’s health IT scene, Within3 may double its employee numbers yet again over the next year or so.
Hill also foresees adding new Within3 locations, in what would be the company’s first offices outside Cleveland, within the next year or two. Candidates would be East and West Coast locations in the U.S. or in Europe.
Within3’s business model is to build online “communities” that enable collaboration within healthcare organizations, similar to groups on LinkedIn. The company’s “40-plus” clients include drug companies, medical device firms, hospitals and professional organizations, Hill said.
“Think of it as a very secure, customized LinkedIn for doctors surrounded by a set of communities,” Hill said.
Within3 makes its money by charging an annual software license fee for a community site as well as ongoing service costs associated with maintaining it.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
One recent customer is the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH). Leadership from the group’s member hospitals will use the community setup by Within3 to network and collaborate on best practices, said Maya Linson, NAPH’s web coordinator. By giving member hospitals the ability to make connections among themselves, the community will free up NAPH staff to work on other issues.
“Previously, an NAPH employee would get a question from a member via email or the phone,” Linson said. “Then that staff member would have to go out and find another NAPH member with the answer and connect those two individuals. Now members can “crowd source” the entire NAPH membership and staff for answers on their own.”
More than 3,000 employees at NAPH member hospitals have been invited to join the network, with their job titles ranging from C-level executives to medical directors to communications officers, Linson said.
While Hill was happy to discuss most examples of Within3’s impressive growth and success, there was one topic on which he grew silent: fundraising. He declined to discuss the company’s investment funding and wouldn’t confirm the accuracy of a 2009 MedCity News report that the company had raised $7 million over its lifetime up until that point.
“Ask me about it in about four weeks and it might be very different,” he said, perhaps hinting that a big funding announcement is in the offing.
