Osmosis

Osmosis (osmosis.org) is a US-based digital health education company that produces short-form, illustrated video content and study tools for medical, nursing and allied health students, practicing clinicians, and patients. The platform applies evidence-based learning science to break complex medical concepts into what the company calls "microcontent" — modular learning units delivered online and via mobile, supplemented by a YouTube channel of educational videos.

The company was co-founded by Shiv Gaglani, who began the venture while a medical student at Johns Hopkins University and served as Co-Founder and CEO. Osmosis was acquired by the publisher Elsevier and became part of Elsevier's Global Medical Education portfolio, operating under the name "Osmosis from Elsevier." At the time of the acquisition announcement, the company reported reach in 195 countries, more than two million YouTube subscribers, over 150 institutional partnerships, and over a quarter of a billion content views. Around the acquisition period the organization described a global workforce of more than eighty-five educators, medical illustrators, video editors and related staff.

Note: several similarly named entities appear in public sources — a Cosmos-ecosystem DeFi protocol (osmosis.zone) and an AI reinforcement fine-tuning startup (osmosis.ai) — and are distinct from this company.

Founding story

Shiv Gaglani conceived Osmosis as a medical student at Johns Hopkins University, concluding that the century-old lecture-based approach to medical education could be made more personalized, dynamic and efficient. He took time off from the MD program to build the company, deferring medical school annually for about ten years while earning an MBA from Harvard in 2016. His first investors included his business school professors; Jeff Bussgang, who taught "Launching Technology Ventures" and is a managing director at Flybridge Capital, provided the company's first six-figure check.

Business model

Osmosis provides subscription-style access to a digital learning platform and video library for individual learners, and works with institutions — including medical schools and digital health companies — through partnerships. Following acquisition it operates as part of Elsevier's Global Medical Education portfolio.

Sources describe a learning platform serving subscribers and 150+ institutional partnerships, but do not disclose pricing or revenue figures.

Traction

At the acquisition announcement Osmosis reported reach in 195 countries, more than two million YouTube subscribers, over 150 institutional partnerships, and over 250 million content views. A podcast description around a year after the acquisition cited a global workforce of more than 85 educators, illustrators and video editors.

Latest developments

Osmosis operates as "Osmosis from Elsevier" within Elsevier's Global Medical Education portfolio. Elsevier stated it intends to apply Osmosis's microcontent approach to other segments of its healthcare portfolio, including nursing students and eventually patients. Co-founder and CEO Shiv Gaglani returned to Johns Hopkins to complete approximately a year and a half of remaining medical school while Elsevier accommodated a modified role.