HealthTap Gets Big Support From Eric Schmidt, Other Venture Funds

HealthTap took a step toward its goal of carving out a third of the $485 billion doctor visit industry after closing it's first round of funding with $11.5 million.

The Palo Alto-based company, which has since seen its network of physicians skyrocket to more than 6,000 members since September, when they that connects doctors with patients.

They announced today the Series A funding from Mayfield Fund, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Innovation Endeavors, the fund from Google's Eric Schmidt.

"We are excited to partner with a serial entrepreneur such as Ron Gutman whose passion, track record, and team will help realize HealthTap’s grand vision," said Mayfield Managing Director, Tim Chang in a statement.

"HealthTap embodies the powerful consumer Internet trend of moving high-value mainstream offline experiences, such as doctor-patient interactions, to the online world," said Chang. "The company leverages the three key innovation drivers that I’m most excited about: mobile apps that enable new kinds of rich, personalized interactions via smartphone and tablet; gamification that enhances user engagement and retention; and social mechanics, such as expert-based Q&A and reputation graphs, that facilitate deep interest and trust. It's this kind of fresh thinking that will accelerate the ‘consumerization’ of Healthcare, and re-invigorate an extremely important and valuable industry that has been behind the IT curve and mired in inefficiency for decades."

Today, more than 500 health care groups have signed up with the network, a sign that HealthTap believes is emblematic of a larger trend toward virtualization of health care. Those groups include Mount Sinai Hospital and Cleveland Clinic.

“HealthTap has become the only place online where medical information is trusted both by physicians and by patients alike,” said Ron Gutman, HealthTap’s Founder and CEO. “Doctors interact with one another and rate each other every day based on the quality of their shared medical knowledge and its helpfulness to patients. This revolutionary approach, which we call ‘Trust Sourcing,’ makes it easy for members of the community to find the most reliable health information and the best doctors in town.”