
Show HN: Medical Research Summarizer – Complex research as simple summaries - blaurenceclark
http://summarizer.hdphealth.com
======
kumarski
We've built a system that allows us to translate difficult to read research
abstracts and convert them into 4 to 8 bullet point descriptions that are
readable by the common person.

It's like Blinkist, but for complex research.

Our backend consists of a ton of med school students, PhD's, and researchers.

I myself had an autoimmune disorder for 10 years, well I still have it, but
I've been in remission for the last 2 years. Making sense of the research out
there is a tall order without an organic chemistry background. When I was
first diagnosed, I ended up spending hours trying to read research I barely
understood, but that was relative child's play for a PhD to clarify.

It's called Ulcerative colitis and has no known cure. Some of the most
intriguing research that I'd wish I had been cognizant of and had a way to
read is this article(Http://bit.ly/fodmapfree) on FODMAPS (Fermentable
Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols Saccharrides)
and their impact on those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Had I known, I would have experimented with something like it to see outcomes.
Keep in mind, there's no such thing as an FDA approved diet.

~~~
rf1331
Do you not worry that people who are not researchers, who are providing
essentially the "TL;DR" of a disease, will provide incomplete or potentially
misleading advice?

~~~
edmundhuber
In addition to what rf1331 said, to what extent is hdphealth liable for a case
where e.g. someone reads that treatment X is beneficial for their case, but in
fact someone got the facts slightly wrong and it made their case much worse?

~~~
kumarski
[https://www.hdphealth.com/2016/02/16/the-research-on-
biopsie...](https://www.hdphealth.com/2016/02/16/the-research-on-biopsies-in-
ulcerative-colitis-patients/)

Notice the disclaimer at the bottom.

As well, we link to the research article itself in every scenario.

At some point we should try to add a "Share with your doctor" button.

Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
Outdoorsman
I think a niche certainly exists for your product...

If you could manage to land an ad in _AARP-The Magazine_ for instance, I think
you'd be pleasantly surprised at the response...that demographic is of an age
where many common ailments begin to show up...

I'd caution you to give the idea of adding a "Share with your doctor" option
very careful thought before implementing it...

Some physicians don't mind patients that attempt to research their ailments
online prior to an appointment...others dread seeing patients arrive with
printouts from the internet...

This is anecdotal from my wife's side of the family, which includes 2
physicians, a dentist, and a physical therapist...

Having said that, times are changing...

Good luck!

~~~
kumarski
Thanks. We've had an overwhelming response even from just the tech community
submitting articles on all sorts of things ranging from hypopharangeal cancer
and beyond.

------
bd3vani
This is generally an awesome idea. The value add is really a jumping off point
that can equip you with enough understanding to begin to read about the issue
overall.

An additional glossary for terms most important to that research area would
also be helpful.

~~~
kumarski
Adding that to our to do list. good idea.

------
ska
Interesting!

Random thought: If this catches on in a big way, have you thought of how the
system will deal with the fundamentally political nature of some areas of
medical research? Real effort is going into trying to subvert this process at
the source, so why not the summary?

~~~
blaurenceclark
We'll deal with that if it really catches on, but if that happens I'd say it's
a better problem to have than no one wanting it at all :)

If you have any ideas we'd love to hear them though!

~~~
ska
Citation graph analysis might be useful, but I'd have to think about it a bit.

I suspect you can make a nearly risk free bet that if there is a significant
amount of money being made that depends on the results of a contentious issue
in the existing science, there are deep problems in the related literature.

~~~
dwgetjg
How about CRISPR? There is a tremendous controversy right now over who should
get recognized (Nobel? Patents?) for CRISPR's invention

------
personlurking
Looks interesting. I'm curious about the ways a user can visualize the
summarized information.

Is it just via paragraphs (like in the one example on your site), bullet
points or some other manner? Does each paragraph equal one sentence or do you
look for hard-to-understand terms and only summarize those?

On a side note, if any readers know of all the best/varied ways to summarize
information ('manually', not via algorithms), I'd be very interested in seeing
examples, particularly of news articles and research.

~~~
blaurenceclark
Essentially we get individuals with medical expertise to make an abstract that
is readable by every day people. Some of these you'll read "the common carotid
artery" but in laymen's terms is "blood vessel in the neck", we make this new
research more accessible to the every day person

------
Fomite
I'll be interested to see how this works - I submitted something, and I'll
post my thoughts when I get your summary.

One question: How do you deal with paper links that go to non-open access
publications? Have you paid for the usual journal subscription bundles?
Relying on crowdsourcing?

~~~
blaurenceclark
We'll either purchase it or look for someone with access :) The crowdsourcing
certainly helps!

------
efm
Where is the privacy policy?

Information about diseases people search for is valuable to a lot of third
parties.

~~~
kumarski
Definitely need to add that.

At the moment, we do not make that information public externally.

------
tgokh
Really interesting idea!

Are the summaries entirely free? If so, what's in it for the summarizers?

~~~
kumarski
We pay them.

We get great SEO value out of publishing the long tail of summarized research.

~~~
redlollipop
What is the pay?

~~~
kumarski
$5/summary.

It ends up being about $15-$25/hr.

------
randycupertino
Interesting. Did you guys pivot from helping people find clinical trials?

~~~
blaurenceclark
The clinical trial recruitment is actually the business model behind this.
We're using this as a way to attract patients to our brand.

