Responsum Health

More than 133 million Americans live with a chronic illness. Responsum Health can help these patients live healthier lives.

This company has built an online knowledge platform for chronic illnesses. Developed from years of research, interviews, and collaboration with patients, its free disease-specific portals help users learn about their illness and receive support from others battling the same disease.

Since launching in 2019, Responsum has created portals for four diseases. Its partners include biotech and pharmaceutical companies Abbvie, Otsuka, and Galapagos NV. And the company has already reached profitability.

At its core, Responsum helps people find trusted, comprehensive information about their illness. That can be a surprisingly difficult task, especially in the age of the internet.

At some point, nearly everyone diagnosed with an illness has gone online to research their condition. But the internet is the “Wild West” in terms of information. Patients can find themselves overwhelmed, confused, and misled by what they find.

Responsum helps guide them. In essence, this platform works like an aggregation service, curating and pulling vetted, informed research from the World Wide Web. This information is then “translated” into easy-to-understand concepts and tips. Patients access this information through summarized newsfeeds, curated libraries, and various resources. They can also share experiences and ask questions with like-minded patients through private messaging and moderated community chat rooms.

Other platforms are built around either patient communities, or published disease-specific content. Responsum combines these features and uses medical experts to search, curate, and summarize reliable information found online.

As mentioned, Responsum is free for patients. That’s because this company’s portals also benefit pharmaceutical companies. And these companies are Responsum’s main customers.

Pharma companies need patients to be knowledgeable and confident with respect to their illness. This makes it more likely they'll adhere to drug regimens. Furthermore, pharma companies are always looking for ways to identify patients that may be willing to take surveys about their illness, or even participate in clinical trials.

Responsum is a tool that pharma companies can use to identify these patients. In fact, companies pay Responsum to sponsor various portals and conduct clinical trial recruitment campaigns.

Responsum started as a research project at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Institute in 2014. The company completed the StartUp Health Accelerator Program in 2019 and launched shortly after.

To date, Responsum has portals for those battling Pulmonary Fibrosis, Chronic Kidney Disease, Fibroids, and Glaucoma. In March 2021, it launched a portal for Covid patients.

In 2020, Responsum generated $840,000 in revenue. And as of June 2021, it had an annual run rate of nearly $900,000.

Moving forward, Responsum will launch portals for diabetes and childhood genetic disorders. The company is in discussions with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and the National Institutes of Health.

Team Background

Andre Surguchov - Senior Medical Writer

Andre has extensive experience in the biomedical space.

Most recently, he was a professor at Kansas University Medical Center. Prior to that, he spent 13 years as a research biologist at VA Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

Earlier in his career, he was a research associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Before that, he was a senior researcher at the University of Utah and an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

Andre earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Moscow State University.

Andrew Rosenberg - Founder & CEO

Andrew started Responsum after spending nearly two decades as a healthcare policy expert in Washington D.C.

He began his career as a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives. From there, he became an election law consultant with the Democratic National Committee.

For the next seven years, he was an associate in public policy with Patton Boggs, a global law firm, where he was a member of the Health Policy Practice. Later, he spent four years as Senior Vice President with Ogilvy Government Relations, a government-focused communications business.

More recently, Andrew co-founded Thorn Run Partners, a lobbying company. He started Responsum in 2014.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in History and Russian Studies from Amherst College, and a Law degree from the University of Virginia.

Yury Smith - Vice President of Operations

Yury has been with Responsum for five years, starting out as a part-time researcher and growing into her current leadership role.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education.

Co-Investors