Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) continues to expand its healthcare software and internet services interests with the acquisition of still-in-beta vertical health search engine Medstory. Angel investors in the Foster City, CA-startup include Esther Dyson, Zach Nelson, president and CEO of NetSuite, and Marty Tenenbaum, chairman of CommerceNet. It was founded by CEO Alain T. Rappaport, an M.D. with a Ph.D in molecular pharmacology and considerable expertise in artificial intelligence.
The WSJ, which is a media partner of Medstory, has details but no terms were disclosed.
Medstory provides focused consumer medical search results by looking for connections between the search terms and other terms, offering the user a way to narrow down the search without clicking on random links. It also sorts the results within areas like “the web,” “news media,” “clinical trials” and “research articles.” Some of the results come through agreements with sources like the WSJ.
-- Medstory and its 10 employees becomes part of the small Health Solutions Group headed by Peter Neupert. He told the Journal the company is looking at ways to to expand Medstory by using personal health records for better results. (That would stir up some privacy advocates.) It also could apply the technology to other areas.
-- Neupert also did an in-house q-and-a: Neupert: ‘This acquisition is one of the first building blocks of our consumer health strategy ...”
Related:
-- Microsoft Readying Online Healthcare Service?