Bringing Transparency to the Health Industry

A new database mapping the interactions of physicians and the health care industry has received $5.5 million in venture backing.

The Boston-based startup Kyruus was founded in 2010 to address the mounting challenges and opportunities stemming from interactions in the health industry. The company will bring transparency to the industry: nearly 65% of funding for biomedical research hails from industry sources and more than 90% of physicians reported receiving gifts from pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

At the beginning of next year gifts from companies to physicians and teaching hospitals will have to be publicly disclosed to the Department of Health and Human Services. Kyruus will compile that data, as well as public and proprietary information, in a database.

“Despite the importance and high prevalence of these interactions, stakeholders have traditionally made poor use of data mining and analytics to appropriately match, manage and measure these relationships in an information-driven manner,” said Julie Yoo, Kyruus’ chief product officer.

The information from Kyruus will be sold via a subscription