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Clevelanders make investment in medical search engine developer

Crains Cleveland Business, November 12, 2009 by Chuck Soder 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — An investment group led by local entrepreneurs aims to turn a technology the Cleveland Clinic has been using to study its own patient records into a product that will help medical researchers sift through mountains of electronic data scattered across the globe.

Cleveland-based 23Bell LLC has committed to investing $1 million in Explorys Inc., a startup that plans to continue developing and eventually commercialize software that Explorys CEO Stephen McHale described as an Internet search engine for medical researchers.

The product would allow participating researchers to comb through electronic patient records created by other participating institutions, enabling them to look for data trends on a large scale. They would sort through patient records by setting all sorts of parameters, ranging from sex and age to body mass index and blood sugar levels, said Mr. McHale, who also is the majority investor in 23Bell. No patient names would be included with the information, he added.

There is strong demand for such a product, especially given how many hospitals are converting to electronic medical records, Mr. McHale said. He expects Explorys, based near University Circle, to employ about 100 people 12 to 18 months from now.

“It's a very big play,” he said.

The Clinic owns part of the company and is using an early version of the technology.

Mr. McHale and Charlie Lougheed, another investor in 23Bell, founded Everstream Inc. in 1999. The Solon company, which sold data analytics software to cable companies, was acquired in 2005 by Concurrent Computer Corp. of Duluth, Ga., in a $15 million deal. Mr. Lougheed will join Explorys as president and chief technology officer in January.

Among the other investors helping finance Explorys via 23Bell are Genesis Inventions of Austin, Texas, and Steven Lindseth, co-founder and former chairman of Cleveland-based Axentis Inc., which sells governance, risk and compliance software.

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