[gingerlime]

I agree that regulation is a big barrier of entry, and building something that can save (but also risk) patients lives is not something to take lightly. Some times expert knowledge is another big obstacle.

That being said, I totally think this area is missing some clever ideas and shaking some of the old-fashioned thinking and tradition.

At kenhub (www.kenhub.com) we're trying to shake things up for anatomy training for students in the health sector. It might not be as sexy, entertaining and trendy as the next social-app, but we believe it does help in a very modest way to train the next generation of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics. At least that's what we hope to achieve, and we're proud to be working on something like this. Even if it's not trendy, and even though we won't get bought by facebook or google.

Another nice initiative we (personally) know in this area is washabich (washabich.de), who is helping patients to better-understand their doctor's diagnosis, and at the same time train students at analyzing those... We would love to hear and collaborate with more startups in this area, and to also see them more on HN.