Dan Shaw Bio

A lawyer by training and experience, Dan Shaw had an epiphany just a few years ago while planning his vacation. Like so many, he found himself checking on the weather repeatedly as he made decisions on what to pack and what to do.

After spending one vacation down with the flu, Dan wondered what his vacation might have been like if he had been able to check for common illnesses with the same kind of scientific reliability and data that was behind those weather forecasts. Not anecdotal reports, but real, hard data that could have told him what was going around and where. An idea was born.

When Dan got home from vacation he started to do research to find out if such a tool existed, and he found that it didn’t. That’s when the entrepreneurial bug bit Dan, and he decided to launch what would become the Doctors Report Website and App.

“Once I started to look at the matter more closely, I found that the data to inform the consumer existed, but it wasn’t accessible to consumers,” said Dan.

“Health providers and others had been using it. I spoke to one exec in health care delivery who said that he was using such data to make sure his clinics had enough supplies to anticipate and meet demand. So, I thought why not help the consumer use this?”

The beauty in Dan’s solution is in its simplicity and accessibility. Doctors Report is an easy-to-use website and app that consumers can use to find out where the most common and prevalent infectious health risks exist right down to the zip code, using actual diagnostic data from doctor’s offices nationwide.

A stream of data flows from every patient visit back to payors (insurance companies, government agencies, etc.). That data stream is characterized by diagnostic codes (with all personal identifying information removed) that are easily sliced and diced by the Doctors Report proprietary platform so that users can find out what common health risks exist where they are, and where they are going.

“The deeper we’ve gone into the development process, the more we realize the value of this information in empowering people to make their lives better. The Doctors Report website and app is for everyone, from anyone traveling in the U.S., to parents of young children trying to avoid common illnesses like strep, or senior citizens and people with chronic conditions like asthma who must manage their exposure to contagions and risks. And doctors themselves can benefit by having more ready access to information which can help them help patients.”

“What excites me most about the Doctors Report is that I know we’ll be helping to keep people healthier, keeping workspaces and schools healthier,” he said. “I like to think maybe even helping, along with their doctor, to prevent serious illness.”

Frequently Asked Questions

I am in a severe area for a number of illnesses. What should I do?

First of all, your doctor or health professional should be your guide to prevention and treatment. The Doctors Report website and app is one tool in your larger health management regimen with your doctor as the keynote. Our answer to staying well is to strictly observe your doctor’s instructions, stay informed with the Doctors Report Illness Tracker and follow the Doctors Report Prevention Steps, which are geared to specific level of risk of the severity level for illnesses you are tracking.

Where do you obtain your information? Is it reliable? Can particular patients be identified?

Our information is powered by a national database, which provides near real-time diagnoses by doctors. Almost all doctors and healthcare providers contribute to this database. Our data is drawn from over one billion patient visits each year. All of our data is “de-identified,” which means there is no information which links the data to individuals, and so privacy is strictly maintained.

How can you tell if my area is high risk for an illness? I live in a densely populated area and it would make sense that more people might be ill at any given time.

Doctors Report uses a patent pending formula to analyze the illness data, which has been carefully developed by Doctors Report statisticians and public health experts. Our focus is on continuous improvement in the quality of that data and our delivery systems. In our research, we have not found any similar tools from others that are based on the kind of reliable diagnoses of doctors and analysis that you find on our Doctors Report websites, apps and news feeds.

What if I want to report when I have an illness, can I notify Doctors Report for their database?

One of the major differences between Doctors Report and any other health app is that we do not rely on information from people who may self-diagnose and voluntarily report their conditions directly or via social media. Our website and app is solely and completely reliable on the medically accurate, timely, credible data that comes directly from about one million doctors’ offices nationwide.

How can I be sure the Doctors Report information is current enough?

Most contagious diseases and conditions have an incubation period of days to weeks, or even months. Since our data includes diagnoses within days from the time of a doctor’s office visit, the data is as current, large and reliable as any available to healthcare providers across the country.

Media Contacts

Tim O’Brien
O’Brien Communications
timobrien@timobrienpr.com

Dan Shaw
Knox Spencer Associates LLC
dan@doctorsreport.com

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