OrganizedWisdom Health Blog

10 ways Social Computing is transforming the Healthcare Industry

We first published the following post as a guest article on one of our favorite health care blogs, The Healthcare IT Guy, two days ago. In case you didn't see it there we are sharing it with you on our own blog to get more exposure for these ideas.  We hope you will comment and offer your own insights and feedback to how social networking will impact the healthcare industry in coming years...

Collaboration is nothing new to the health care industry. Scientists, physicians, health organizations, and educational institutions have networked, shared information, and worked together to solve the world’s biggest health care challenges forever. But only recently, as a result of new Internet technologies, have individuals been empowered to join this same discussion in a meaningful, collective way.

Here are 10 ways social computing may be the most disruptive and positive force to ever impact the healthcare industry.

1. Information Windows Have Closed
New health-focused social networks, search engines and content distributors are making it easier for anyone to have access to the same information at the same time. That means the health care industry needs to educate consumer patients at the same time they educate physicians. Consumers now have access to information that was once privileged only to the industry. Social computing makes it possible for almost anyone to quickly arm themselves with information, ask more questions, and take charge of their health decisions like never before.

2. Collaboration is Making Us Smarter
Now that it’s less expensive, faster, and easy for health groups, physicians, health organizations, and consumers to connect and collaborate, everyone is getting smarter. People are learning about new treatments, alternative solutions, less expensive options, and helping each other connect the dots with complicated health issues.

3. It’s Now Possible to Dialog Directly with Patients
For the most part, the health care industry has been based on the “few to many” approach to communications, marketing, product development, etc. Technology is making it possible (and necessary) for the industry to connect with all of their constituencies in a more personalized, relevant way. These new direct links with consumer patients, for example, could mean better product design, new treatments, more effective trials, and ultimately more personalized health solutions.

4. Transparency is a Requirement
Social networks are lifting the veil of an often blurry and complex industry. People want to understand more about the companies providing their health care. They are learning about alternative treatments. And they are demanding a more open and forthright culture from the industry. Social networks are breeding savvy consumers, who are giving their trust to those who are opening the curtain and helping communicate in more transparent ways.

5. Word of Mouth Marketing
Friends and family have shared and spread important wisdom since the beginning of time. But now, via social networks, they can do so with a click of a button. This means that industry marketers will need to rethink how they focus their efforts. They must figure out transparent and effective ways to leverage word of mouth marketing in a hyper-connected world.

6. Knowledge Now Lives Forever
Over time community driven knowledge bases will become smarter and more meaningful. Archived information, shared wisdom, and personal experience has a much longer life span than ever before.

7. Wisdom of Crowds
The collective experience from millions can now be assembled to help people see trends, make decisions, and learn what worked (or didn’t work) for millions of other people. Access to this data will change how people make their health care decisions in the future, and perhaps impact the very types of health related products and services that become available.

8. The Long Tail Effect
Health care will open up to thousands of new micro-segments, as the health industry, learns that there is big business in small niche focused health care needs. There will be new treatments and solutions for even the most rare of health conditions. It is also likely, that social networks will make it easier for the health care industry to identify new areas they need to focus on developing solutions for.

9. Costs Driven Down
Over time, education and collaboration will force the industry to find innovative ways to keep costs down. People will get better access to health care at more affordable prices because they will be able to find other options and new solutions.

10. Privacy Fears Replaced by a Culture of Collaborative Action
For many important reasons, personal privacy is critical when health issues are concerned. But as we are seeing online in message boards, blogs, and Web sites, many are standing up and saying: I want to share my wisdom to help other people. Social networks that empower consumers and put them in control of their personal health information, are giving individuals the choice to make decisions about what they share and what they don’t. This new culture of openness will require additional protections, but overall we will all benefit from a more intelligent and collaborative base of knowledge, experience and progress.

It is exciting to see all of the innovation occurring in the health care industry today. New technologies, empowered consumers, and better information, will ultimately help us all. Those companies who learn to participate transparently, and leverage the force of these new networks, will ultimately succeed.

Mashable Social Networking 2.0 Reviews OrganizedWisdom

We thought we'd share this site review on Mashable.com about OrganizedWisdom, which we were really happy to see today. (3 Diggs so far!)

Reviewer Pete Cashmore ended by saying "OrganizedWisdom seems well put-together and could be a good resource once they have more user-generated content". And he's right.  We know the content development part will take time to gain traction and build momentum so we will need your help on this one!  We simply need more user content which is no easy task at the beginning (subliminal message: share wisdom here).  Give us a few months, however, and with your help we will have assembled an amazing knowledgebase that will help a lot of people.  Also, based on some great user feedback, we are working to simplify the WisdomWizard process to help make it even easier for people to share their experience.

Cashmore also highlights the fact that we need more social networking features if we want this to be a real forum and a place to search great health information.  Right again!  We are busy building several new features including more advanced user profiles, groups, connecting friends and family, and an internal messaging system. Additional privacy features play a big role in these new features and we are making sure to design these with care. You can learn more about these new features on our site tour: http://tour.organizedwisdom.com. Our motto is to release early and often, and keep making it better.  We are in the first inning, so we've got lots more to come...

It is always helpful to get real live feedback from people on the outside or who are new to the site -- especially from great blogs like Mashable.com. The fresh perspective helps you keep improving. 

We're incredibly happy that we are launched and live, and we look forward to releasing new features and adding even more content in the days and weeks ahead!

Help us promote this review by Digging It! and linking to this review: http://mashable.com/2006/10/03/organizedwisdom-launches-social-network-for-health/

JupiterResearch Finds That Rising Costs and Complexity in Healthcare Will Spur Consumer Demand For Online Health Media

A new JupiterResearch report, “US Health Consumer Survey, 2006: Online Health Media Consumption and the Impact of Increasing Health Consumerism", has found that consumer demand for online health-related media and services will increase as changes in healthcare shift more decisions and costs to consumers.

“Consumers’ motivation to take care of their health benefits has a spill-over effect,” said Monique Levy, Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch and lead author of the report. “These consumers are becoming more engaged with everything that has to do with health online, including advertisements.”    

According to the JupiterResearch press release distributed today, in addition to stronger motivation, new or improved health-related products that have a stronger value proposition for consumers than ones in the past, such as improved search capabilities, cost and treatment-comparison tools, and community-related products, will drive consumer reliance on online health resources.        

“We expect overall demand of online health media to increase as more consumers are pushed to take greater control of their health decisions and spending,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. “This growth provides a significant opportunity for online health publishers and advertisers, especially those that have been developing more sophisticated capabilities during the last year.”

The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com.

News Release: Health Seekers Get Their Own Social Networking Site

Former iVillage and Privacy Council Executives Launch OrganizedWisdom.com to Help Families, Groups, and Health Care Professionals Collaborate and Share Health Knowledge

New York, NY – October 3, 2006 -- OrganizedWisdom, LLC today announced that it has launched the first health-focused social networking site, where consumers, health care professionals, and health organizations can collaborate and share knowledge on more than 6,500 health topics. OrganizedWisdom.com was founded by Internet industry veterans Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes to improve how people find and share health information by linking trusted, evidence-based information with practical user-generated health advice, ratings and recommendations. 

The company’s patent-pending technology makes it easy for users to contribute their most important experiences and recommendations on any disease, medication, treatment or health issue. In addition, through the company’s SponsoredWisdom™ program, health care companies can contribute educational research and patient advocate wisdom in a credible and safe environment. OrganizedWisdom is designed to clearly identify the source of all health information (doctor-reviewed, user-generated, and industry-contributed) for consumers and physicians, as well as to help health care companies avoid many of the risks that currently limit their participation in online communities.

“By organizing the collective wisdom from millions of people who have personal health experiences, and aligning it with professional knowledge and doctor-reviewed content, we can help the public make better informed decisions,” said Steven Krein, CEO of OrganizedWisdom. “Because the content is community-rated, segregated by source, and structured by topic, this one-stop-shop approach makes it easy for anyone to quickly learn what the doctors have to say, what people with life experience have to say, and what the industry has to say on any health topic.”

“With 80% of Internet users searching online for answers to practical health questions*, it’s not as easy as it should be,” said Unity Stoakes, President of OrganizedWisdom. “There are too many cluttered message boards, distracting banners and generic information on most health sites. Our goal is to make it easy to safely connect people who need information, advice and support with a health community who can help them. In one-click, users can save, recommend or email any information found on the site to family members or friends who might need it.”

Through a content licensing partnership with the non-profit evidence-based health information leader, Healthwise, OrganizedWisdom is able to leverage one of the most comprehensive health and drug information resources available. More than 75 million times a year people use Healthwise information to help them make better health decisions.

“I like the concept of organizing wisdom and connecting it with scientific information,” said Healthwise CEO Don Kemper. “Giving people accurate, up-to-date medical information is hugely important. Giving them access to the experience of others adds another valuable dimension.”

MANAGEMENT TEAM

The OrganizedWisdom team has worked together building companies for nearly a decade.

Steven Krein, co-founder and CEO, was also co-founder and CEO of Internet marketing firm Promotions.com and its Webstakes subsidiary from start-up in 1996 through its IPO on Nasdaq in 1999 and its subsequent sale to women’s media company iVillage. Krein served as a senior executive at iVillage after completion of the sale in 2002.

Unity Stoakes, co-founder and President, was the Chief Marketing Officer of Promotions.com through start-up and IPO. Stoakes left to become VP of Marketing at The Privacy Council, a privacy compliance software company helping companies manage HIPPA and data management issues.

Gregg Alwine, Chief Technology Officer, was also the CTO of Promotions.com. Alwine is also CEO of Corsis, which provides technology services to some of the world’s largest companies including McDonalds, iVillage and NBC.

Adam Ingberman, VP, Product Development, spent 8 years as VP, Application Development for iVillage. Ingberman is also the VP of Product Development at Corsis.

ABOUT ORGANIZEDWISDOM

OrganizedWisdom is a health-focused social networking site that enables consumers, health professionals and organizations to collaborate on thousands of health topics. The company, founded by Internet entrepreneurs Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes, aligns doctor-reviewed and user-generated health content to help people make better health decisions. Its patent-pending technology and unique organizing structure makes it easy for people to transform health experiences into valuable wisdom to help others. (http://www.organizedwisdom.com)

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The Same News Release Was Sent Over The PrimeZone News Wire Today: http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=106107

CONTACT:
Unity Stoakes
unity@organizedwisdom.com
646-290-6420

MySpace Isn't Alone Anymore (Or Why Niche Social Networks Are Becoming More Popular)

With tens of millions of active users, MySpace and Facebook.com have been sweeping the Internet by storm over the past few years.  But a new trend is emerging that looks like it will become increasingly important over the coming years: in addition to their current memberships, users are turning to niche-focused social networks that meet their specific needs such as regionalism, increased privacy protections, or features that relate to a particular topic of interest.

In today's Wall Street Journal article, MySpace Has Large Circle of Friends,
But Rivals' Cliques Are Growing Too,Vauhini Vara writes: "The rise of these [new] social-networking sites is another sign of the shifting tastes on the Internet, as niche audiences flock to new alternatives to MySpace and Facebook."

Newcomers like Piczo.com and Bebo.com are finding new audiences overseas and in Canada. In addition, users are now demanding increased privacy protections and new features more relevant to their needs.  We've written in the past about the rise of the niche-focused social network and it is becoming clear a one-size-fits-all approach to communities isn't the only option anymore. Bigger is not necessarily better.

As an example, spend a little time in the health groups section of MySpace.com and you will quickly see what we mean.  While MySpace has thousands of legitimate health related groups that are helping a lot of people, there are hundreds of off-topic, spoof-related, or sexually-oriented groups cluttering up the system.  This can make it difficult (or worse - dangerous!) for people who really need health information they can trust.  The new weight loss community, Traineo.com is a great example of a community serving the needs of a specific group.  Because of their mission to help people lose weight, they focus only on the needs of this community.  At OrganizedWisdom.com, we're focusing on health issues like diseases, treatments, medications, health insurance, and so on, not because people don't need "community wisdom" on many different topics, but because it is our focus on Health that enables us to develop specific features and better content for our members. 

This trend should be welcome news to many.  With more of these focused communities growing over the coming years, we will see more people getting what they really need out of social-networks.