Healthcare IT · Clinical knowledge networks
Mednet
A physician-only question and answer network that began with oncologists and now claims 23 specialties. It is free to doctors. Federal contracts, cancer foundations and industry partners pay for it.
A question with no clean answer
Here is a question an infectious disease physician put to Mednet in early 2026: “In light of recent measles outbreaks in the US, would you recommend an MMR booster for immunocompetent patients born before 1957?”
No guideline settles that. No trial is going to. It is the sort of question a doctor carries down the hall, or emails to whoever trained them.
Paul Sax, who writes the NEJM Group blog HIV and ID Observations, came across the site in February 2026. He had spent the first half of that post praising AI retrieval tools, then drew the line where they stop being useful. Mednet sells itself into exactly that gap.
The problem it is aimed at
Guidelines describe populations. Patients arrive one at a time, with comorbidities and prior lines of therapy that no consensus committee enumerated. In oncology the mismatch is acute: the evidence base turns over fast, and most patients are treated far from an academic center.
The research Mednet co-authored makes the case in numbers. A 2022 study in JMIR Cancer describes the network as a way to move knowledge from tumor boards at National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers out to community practice. Between December 2016 and July 2021, faculty at 16 such centers turned 368 tumor board discussions into questions and answers, viewed 147,661 times by 7,381 oncologists at 3,515 institutions in all 50 states.
A second study, in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, covered a two-month window at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy-nine questions were approved, 67 were answered, and they drew 49,494 views from 5,148 unique viewers. Both papers were written by the founders and by physicians who received stipends or salaries from the company, disclosed in the papers themselves.
A sister, a brother, and a diagnosis
Nadine Housri was an intern when her father was diagnosed with cancer. Sax, writing in 2026, reports it was prostate cancer; the company's own account does not name the disease. She did what a physician with a network does. She emailed experts. She called them. The advice was useful and her father recovered.
Her older brother Samir, a technologist who had worked with Major League Baseball, The New York Times and EMI Music and had been a principal at Rho Ventures, watched and asked an uncomfortable question: why does this expertise only move through private conversation?
They launched in 2014 among radiation oncologists, then added medical, surgical, gynecologic and pediatric oncology. Nadine Housri is an Associate Professor Adjunct at Yale School of Medicine and the company's chief medical officer; Samir Housri is chief executive. Y Combinator took them in the Winter 2017 batch.
From oncology outward, and toward AI
Two things happened in 2020. The company's application for a National Science Foundation Phase II award, which would have funded machine learning to match clinical trials to physician questions, was not funded. Then COVID-19 arrived and demand appeared well outside oncology.
The expansion followed. In Spring 2025 Nadine Housri told ASTROnews that “Today theMednet exists in 15 specialties across medicine.” An August 2025 company blog post put it at 21 specialties and subspecialties, 25,000 answers and 4,000 expert physicians. The 2026 website says 23 specialties, 45,000 verified physicians and 3,700 experts. Infectious disease launched in 2024.
The machine learning idea came back with money behind it. In October 2024 the National Cancer Institute awarded the company a $2 million contract to build AI trial matching inside the platform, with Nadine Housri as principal investigator. The first output is a survey of 294 oncologist users, presented as a 2026 Journal of Clinical Oncology abstract. Only 42 percent of respondents said they could identify appropriate trials efficiently, and only 35 percent rated existing online tools useful.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| NCI contract | 75N91024C00071, $2,000,000, awarded Sep 16, 2024, running to Sep 15, 2026. PI Nadine Housri, awardee Mednet, Inc. Topic 465: recruitment and retention of diverse populations in cancer trials. | Public record |
| NSF award | SBIR Phase I 1843270, $225,000, Feb 1 to Jul 31, 2019, PI Nadine Housri. No Phase II award appears on the record, matching the founder's account that the Phase II application was not funded. | Public record |
| Tumor board study | JMIR Cancer, May 2022. 23 programs at 16 NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, 368 questions, 534 answers, 147,661 views by 7,381 oncologists at 3,515 institutions, Dec 2016 to Jul 2021. | Public record |
| COVID-19 study | JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, Sep 2020. 79 questions, 67 answered, 49,494 views, 5,148 unique viewers in two months, against a stated user base of 11,010. | Public record |
| 2026 ASCO abstract | Abstract e13689, Journal of Clinical Oncology. Survey of 294 oncologist users under the NCI contract, 43 percent academic and 50 percent community. Conclusion: “Our data suggest the primary barrier is not a lack of interest, but a lack of effective tools.” | Public record |
| CME accreditation | Joint providership with the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, an ACCME accredited provider. Up to 20 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits and up to 20 ABIM and ABP Maintenance of Certification Part II points, 2024 activity. | Public record |
| Who pays for the content | The 2022 JMIR paper names “private investors, and industry partners” among the funders. The company recruiting profile lists NSF, ASCO, SWOG and “select pharmaceutical companies, and more.” No individual sponsor is named on the site, and no program is labeled as sponsored. | Public record |
| Physician counts | Company site, 2026: 45,000 verified physicians, 3,700 experts, 23 specialties. Company release, Oct 2024: “utilized by over 85% of U.S. oncologists.” ASTROnews, Spring 2025: “nearly 40,000 physicians have sought advice via theMednet.” Peer-reviewed 2022 figure: 13,000 oncologist members. None is independently audited. | Counts differ |
| The 1 in 3 claim | The site says 1 in 3 physicians change their patient approach because of something read on Mednet. The published survey found 163 of 1,063 responses saying a Q&A would change future practice and 214 saying they learned something new. Only the two together reach about 1 in 3, at 377 of 1,063. | Claim outruns the paper |
| Most cited source | The home page calls Mednet “the most cited source of post-publication guidance in the United States.” No citation or ranking supporting that was found. | Not found |
| SEC filings | EDGAR full text search returns zero documents for theMednet, Mednet, Inc. or Housri. No Form D on file. | Not found |
Read plainly: the usage evidence is real, dated and peer reviewed, and it is also self-reported platform analytics written up by people the company pays. The academic partnerships are specific and checkable. The marketing numbers run well ahead of the published ones. And the people who fund the content are described as a category, not a list.
What to watch
- Whether the NCI contract, which expired Sep 15, 2026, is renewed or followed by a further award.
- The promised six-month resurvey of the 294 oncologists after exposure to the AI trial matching tool.
- Whether the company ever names its industry partners and labels which questions and answers they fund.
- Whether membership claims converge on one auditable number, and whether verified means registered or active.
- Whether access widens beyond physicians. A pharmacist with prescribing privileges reported being removed within 24 hours.
In their words
“The know-how of what to do when there are no clear guidelines is trapped in their heads, because there’s only so much that’s published or presented at conferences.”
Nadine Housri, MD, co-founder and CMO, ASTROnews, Spring 2025 · Interview
“I thought it was very unfair that a patient’s outcome was based on where they lived.”
Nadine Housri, MD, ASCO Connection, 2020 · Independent
“We are exposing doctors to the strongest networks, so experts are right down the hall, just like in academic centers.”
Samir Housri, co-founder and CEO, TechCrunch, 2017 · Independent
“The questions they post, and the responses they receive are both relevant and at times quite helpful, if only to show the diversity of clinical practice when guidelines won’t cut it.”
Paul Sax, MD, NEJM Group blog HIV and ID Observations, February 2026 · Independent
“TheMednet, Inc has received a combination of public and private funding from sources including the National Science Foundation, The Hope Foundation, Bonnie J Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, private investors, and industry partners.”
Acknowledgments, JMIR Cancer, 2022 · Public record
“This is a completely new paradigm for how doctors learn about clinical trials which is much more aligned with how they practice medicine.”
Nadine Housri, MD, NCI contract announcement, October 2024 · Company release
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordNIH RePORTER, NCI contract 75N91024C00071, Mednet, Inc.
- Public recordNSF SBIR Phase I award 1843270
- Public recordMaking NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center Knowledge Accessible to Community Oncologists via an Online Tumor Board
- Public recordtheMednet Internet Point of Care 2024, accreditation and credit statement
- Public recordEDGAR full text search for theMednet, Mednet, Inc. and Housri, zero results
- IndependentQuora for cancer startup theMednet raises $1.3 million in seed funding
- IndependentThe Housris of theMednet: Innovators of Improved Cancer Care
- IndependentSometimes You Just Need to Get Input from a Real Human Being
- InterviewNouveau Teaching Ventures in the Digital Era
- CompanytheMednet Awarded $2M Contract by the National Cancer Institute
- CompanyMednet home page, about page, partnerships page and ACAAI partner page
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
