GoodRx, a company best known for its medication price transparency service, is launching a new health information tool designed to give in-depth information to some of the most common health questions and conditions. 

Dubbed GoodRx Health, the service takes a multimodal approach, and includes GoodRx Answers, editorial content aimed to help inform patients about their conditions and questions, Health Wizard, which helps patients navigate complex health-related choices, and Explainer videos. 

“The majority of people still live in the messy, real world of not enough time to go to their doctor, not enough time to do what the doctor tells them to do and barely enough time to get their prescriptions filled,” Thomas Goetz, chief of research and communications officer at GoodRx, told MobiHealthNews.

“So what we are trying to do with GoodRx Health is as simple as trying to create a better, more thorough, more rigorous resource [that] drives better decision-making for patients and reflects today's state of knowledge and today's editorial approaches.”

Goetz likened it to a Wirecutter for consumer products or a NerdWallet for personal finances, where non-industry folks can find out more about topics. GoodRx has also hired a lot of staffers from those organizations to help get the project going. 

“We are trying to create an inventory of answers and resources that do better at solving people's questions or answering people's questions and solving people's problems.”

Goetz noted that physicians often go to Cochrane Reviews to gather sources on specific conditions and to inform health decision-making. This new tool is looking to synthesize health information, but on a consumer level. 

The GoodRx Answers’ articles start with a short answer to a medical question. As the reader scrolls an article, they will get more specific information, and find links at the end to additional studies and resources. The authors lay out their methodology for answering any given questions, report any caveats and discuss what additional research is ongoing. 

Readers can also tap into the platform for financial guidance, FAQs on drugs and articles that debunk health myths. 

The company will also provide information in video format. This comes after GoodRx announced its acquisition of HealthiNation, a health-education video producer. 

In terms of business model, GoodRx Health isn’t going the typical advertisement route.

“Our model is to work with largely pharma manufacturers, not just to create display ads, but to create programs that help our readers find solutions to tell if they're in the market for a brand medication to help them get entree [to] that medication largely through things like patient assistance programs, where manufacturers have set up these programs to enroll people and make more affordable drugs accessible,” Goetz said. 

WHY IT MATTERS 

In the wake of COVID-19, there was a global rise of medical misinformation. The World Health Organization says research estimates that around 6,000 people around the world were hospitalized in the first three months of 2020 due to coronavirus misinformation. 

GoodRx is pitching this tool as a way to give better health information to people outside the health industry. 

“We're willing to do the hard work. I mean, those pages take two months to create, and that's a level of effort that I think is probably uncommon. And the result of that is something that is more useful,” Goetz said.

“We're not offering medical advice, so it isn't going to diagnose you. It isn't going to prescribe a treatment, but it is going to give you a much clearer landscape of what your options are.”

THE LARGER TREND 

In 2020, GoodRx hit the public markets. In March, the company reported its earnings in the first full year, boasting $550.7 million in revenue for the full year – a 42% increase from the previous year.

While the company got its start for its medication cost comparison tool, it has recently been expanding. In 2019, the company launched a virtual care tool, after acquiring telehealth company HeyDoctor.