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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Covid guidelines have many Americans confused. Vaccinated people are supposed to resume wearing masks, lest they contract and spread the virus. Yet unvaccinated people are still strongly urged to get the shots, which are said to be highly effective. How can both these claims be true?

Published in the Wall Street Journal on May 1, 2019 by Michael Segal, MD PhD

They can appear to be the proximate cause of a condition when they have nothing to do with the ultimate cause. Why are people afraid of vaccines?

See letter in response on 13 May.

Released April 1, 2019

SimulConsult announces a new version of its diagnostic decision support tool. The tool combines the power of
curated human expertise and computational artificial intelligence (AI) to empower clinicians in diagnosis and
workup of patients. It is used today in 118 countries. The new version has a completely new interface that allows it to run on mobile devices as well as on computers. It is fast to use and puts the diagnostic power into a clinician’s hands whenever needed.

SimulConsult’s newly-formed research partner, PhenoSolve, LLC., received an SBIR I from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the NIH beginning September 19, 2018 with Michael M. Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

The rationale is that the current state of genome analysis and clinical use is lagging in part due to a situation of siloed information and capabilities, a situation that Clayton Christensen characterizes as requiring end-to-end integration to set the stage for a subsequent environment of interoperable standards. While analogous to the radiology PACS, the G-PACS will also have advanced analysis capabilities and sophisticated handling of 2 types of information – patient findings and annotated genomic variants to enable genome-phenome analysis by clinicians and laboratorians using these components.

SimulConsult receives SBIR II from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the NIH of the NIH beginning August 1, 2017 with Michael M. Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

This research aims to ease the shortage of pediatric rheumatologists by using decision support software to improve the ability of generalist physicians to make rheumatologic diagnoses. It extends to actual clinical practice our previous work that demonstrated large reductions in diagnostic error when tested using written case summaries, using a randomized controlled study. The research will be done after implementing improvements to the diagnostic tool suggested by the earlier pilot study.

SimulConsult, Inc. of Chestnut Hill, MA has been awarded START Stage I funding for their work on the SimulConsult® diagnostic decision support system. Lynn Feldman, CEO of SimulConsult, Inc. said “the START program fills a critical gap between the SBIR research program and achieving a revenue-producing product – investment in commercialization activities. The START program will allow us to migrate our technology to a new platform, which means we can price our product more competitively, improving our financial prospects and rate of growth.”

SimulConsult receives SBIR II from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the NIH beginning March 27 2013 with Michael M. Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

With the declining cost of whole exome and genome sequencing, the main cost of such testing is becoming the cost of interpreting the huge amount of data that is generated. This project combines the power of diagnostic software that examines all known diagnoses (the “phenome”) with the power of whole exome sequencing to examine the genome, and uses advanced capabilities such as compatibility with all family structures and the ability to take into account DNA deletions and duplications. In automating the genome-phenome analysis, this project brings the power of genome analysis to clinical practice – lowering costs while increasing accuracy.
SimulConsult has commercial contracts with a number of laboratories for its Genome-Phenome Analyzer to analyze exome data. These contracts make use of the ongoing research and product development from this grant, including the addition of the ability to analyze copy number variations from genomic data or a traditional microarray and families with samples from family members other than a trio.

SimulConsult receives SBIR II from the National Library of Medicine of the NIH beginning September 2013 with Michael M. Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

This project uses the power of diagnostic decision support software to provide advanced capabilities to multiple electronic health records, including complex test selection, superior clinical reporting, payor integration and learning from patient results, using as research areas radiology and genetics, in the diagnosis of neurological diseases. The aims are to use the deep knowledge of such a tool to improve accuracy and cost-effectiveness of medical care. More generally, the goal is to advance the vision of “best of breed” knowledge tools making medical care better and more affordable.

SimulConsult and the Geisinger Genomic Medicine Institute won the Bio-IT World Best Practices Award in Informatics for their use of SimulConsult’s Genome-Phenome Analyzer to analyze genomes accurately and quickly.

SimulConsult receives SBIR I from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the NIH beginning March 27 2013 with Michael M. Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

With the declining cost of whole genome sequencing, the main cost of such testing is becoming the cost of interpreting the huge amount of data that is generated. This project combines the power of using diagnostic software to examine all known diagnoses (the “phenome”) with the power of whole exome sequencing to examine the genome. In automating the genome-phenome analysis, this project brings the power of genome analysis to clinical practice – lowering costs while increasing accuracy.

SimulConsult receives SBIR I from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the NIH beginning September 2013 with Michael M Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

This project responds to a critical shortage of pediatric rheumatologists by enlisting top rheumatologists to encapsulate the diagnostic information in their field in the most advanced decision support software tool for diagnosis. The project tests workability of integration into a tool used in other areas of medicine and assesses the benefits of such rheumatology assistance for both rheumatologists and general clinicians. By doing so, it tests whether this decision support approach can be used more widely to improve accuracy and cost effectiveness in medicine.

Published in Genome Web on May 18, 2012 by Uduak Grace Thomas

SimulConsult, a bioinformatics company based in Chestnut Hill, Mass., is marketing a new software tool called the Genome-Phenome Analyzer, which lets clinicians and research labs combine whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing data with clinical findings and phenotype information

Published in MIT’s Technology Review on September 21, 2011.

The article discusses IBM’s Watson, Isabel and SimulConsult in the context of medical decision support.

SimulConsult receives contract from the National Library of Medicine of the NIH beginning September 27, 2010 with Michael M. Segal MD PhD as Primary Investigator

The project is designed to assess the feasibility of a computational approach to diagnostic decision support based on an open, comprehensive database encompassing many diseases, using a Bayesian model with an evidence-based authoring process in which it is possible to update one disease in isolation, without commenting on other diseases, and do so with detailed temporally-sensitive information.

In an interview with Hugh Hewitt, Clayton Christensen comments on how SimulConsult will disrupt aspects of the health system.

Published in the Health Business Group Blog on March 6, 2009.

In The Computer Will See You Now, Dr. Anne Armstrong-Coben highlights the depersonalization and mindless checkboxes of electronic health records. She identifies Tablet PCs as the way to deal with the depersonalization, but is silent on what to do about the mindless checkboxes:

Published on December 4, 2008 by Clayton Christensen et al

A book by Clayton Christensen and colleagues discusses SimulConsult as an example of a “disruptive innovation” that helps generalist and specialist doctors make diagnoses at the level of specialists and sub-specialists.