The Health Wisdom Blog™ (by OrganizedWisdom)

How To Avoid Internet Health Scams - 5 Tips To Protect Yourself From Malicious Health Info

One of the main reasons we decided to build OrganizedWisdom Health is to help people get health information they can trust -- and weed out all of the Web sites that may be malicious, spam index, or out right quackery.

We just published an article on this topic over at Internet Evolution.  You can read the full piece here titled, "Quack Alert: Avoiding Internet Health Scams".

Here are five quick steps informed consumers should take to protect themselves from malicious health information:

1. Start your medical researching at trusted Health Search engines like OrganizedWisdom, Healthline, or Healia.
2. Use trusted health sites that have been certified by accreditation directory URAC or feature HONcode seals on the homepage.
3. Check the source of the information to see if it is sponsored or trying to sell something.
4. Tell your doctor about the online health resources you typically use and ask him or her to recommend medical resources.   
5. Ask your local politicians and representatives to strengthen laws against medical fraud and resources for enforcement.

Finding the best medical Web sites

The American College of Physicians published a useful article this month in ACP Hospitalist listing some of the most useful health Web sites that patients and medical professionals are now using to get health information.

Jessica Berthold's article, Smart surfing: Finding the best medical Websites, points out that "patients aren't the only ones doing the Web surfing. A 2006 article in Postgraduate Medical Journal found that 71% of health care professionals use the Internet regularly for medical or professional updating, and 63% recommend Web sites to patients. The issue for many physicians is not whether to use medical Web sites, but how to find the best ones."

We were happy to be included in the list of useful sites featured on the list patients are using including:

• WebMD Health  is an interactive site with information on more than 90 disease and lifestyle topics, and more than 140 message boards.

• Daily Strength  has support groups for people with more than 500 medical conditions.

• EverydayHEALTH is a general medical news site, with health calculators, polls and discussion boards.

• The HealthCentral Network  is a clearinghouse of community-focused Web sites sorted by specific conditions (e.g., MyDiabetesCentral.com, MyHeartCentral.com).

• OrganizedWisdom  selects and organizes user-generated health content from the Web.

• Revolution Health is a comprehensive, interactive site with articles, discussion boards, disease information and more than 125 consumer-friendly health tools.

We've put our own list together of useful resources our health guides use to find great health resources to create WisdomCards.  We are constantly adding to this list so feel free to send us suggestions.

White Paper Provides Strategy to Help Drug Firms Leverage Social Media Safely

Over the past year and a half, we have met with marketing executives, compliance officers, and lawyers from more than 20 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies to discuss how they could and should be using social media to join the conversation and connect better with patients.

We felt there was (and still is) a significant opportunity for them to leverage the power of social media to share information and education to try and bridge the massive divide that currently exists between Big Pharma and the people who buy their products.

But meeting after meeting, we would be met with resistance to the effect of, "We don't do social media; We don't want to lose control; We can't use blogs..." and so on.

Being the resilient entrepreneurial types that we are, we pressed on determined to convince these companies that a healthy dose of transparency and openness would go a long way in improving relations with customers. We even developed a presentation called Pharma-Friendly Social Media to try and bridge the gap between these companies and their customers. Still, it was always an uphill battle trying to get these companies to start listening and communicating to their own customers. (If they listen, they might learn about adverse events, which is a big no-no.  Then they have to file lots of paperwork and disclose issues that may impact their drugs, etc.).

One of the biggest challenges was that the FDA has yet to issue guidance on how to conduct monitoring and marketing practices in social media so pharmaceutical companies are unsure how to proceed. And as we quickly learned, no one wants to be the guinea pig with new innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. And for good reason, Big Pharma must be cautious, conservative, and follow the letter of the law.

It is unclear when or if the FDA will issue guidance on the many new issues that have come up as a result of social media, the Internet, and online marketing. Until the waters settle, we recommend each company take baby steps and get involved. Bring your marketing teams and compliance teams together to figure out how to take the first steps.

And step one should be reading this new White Paper just co-authored by Fard Johnmar from Envision Solutions.

OrganizedWisdom Welcome Videos

Long Version:

Short Version:

Craig Newmark, Founder of CraigsList Shares Site's Secrets To Success

It's easy to see why Craig Newmark and the community posting site he founded in 1995, CraigsList.com, have become so successful (7 billion page views this month! ): a simple vision, consistent follow-thru and the golden rule.

One of the great advantages of being located in a place like New York City, is you frequently get to meet people like Craig and learn from their wisdom and experience.  I was lucky enough to attend Craig Newmark's discussion today at NYU as part of the iBreakfast Series.

Here are some of the nuggets of advice and knowledge he shared today that will be useful to anyone building a community-focused company, product or service: