TimmyHMedical Advice Goes Social
June 25th 2008 04:12
A new social-networking website has been created which centres on health and medical advice. Trusera.com which began last week is an online community which features personalised health information and allows members to endorse contributions of fellow members as a way to identify reliable sources of medical information.
Similar projects have been launched by GoogleHealth and MicrosoftHealthVault, both of which allow patients to collect and share health records. But Trusera.com is unique in that it focuses on social networking and storytelling. It hopes to foster a sense of community where users can learn from one another’s experiences and seek advice.
Founder Keith Schorsch, a former senior executive at Amazon.com says the site’s motto, “The power of been there, is a real rallying cry. What we want to do is combine the power of those stories in an individual, and also collectively powerful, way."
While it might appear that Trusera.com is similar to other health sites like PatientsLikeMe and DailyStrength which have been online since 2006 and Caring.com which started last year, its advantage is that it does not pigeon hole its members by disease. Instead, Trusera seeks to connect health consumers by more than common illness.
Just like everything online, Health Websites suffer from a noise feedback problem. There are vast amounts of useful health information online, but to get to it, users often have to sift through irrelevant and even dangerous “facts”.
In January of this year a report by iCrossing found that more Americans are going to the Internet for medical advice than to their GP. Perhaps this is more a reflection on the health of the medical profession in the US than anything else. But even so this is startling.
The information that consumers are going to isn’t just on government and professional health websites but also blogs and support groups. Many people want to hear from fellow sufferers rather than from professionals.
Schrosch was motivated to create Trusera after he contracted Lyme disease in 2004. He went from doctor to doctor in Washington State undiagnosed and his health rapidly deteriorated until an East Coast friend suggested he get tested for Lyme. Schrosch found that the most trusted sources of information on the Net are often ex-patients, people who have been through similar experiences, rather than professionals.
For the most part, people contributing to Trusera are ordinary citizens who are suffering with diseases. “Humans are storytelling machines. It's one thing to ask for charted data and patient health records; it's another to ask for experiences. We're focusing on the latter,” says Schorsch. “There's incredible power in analysing and indexing the unstructured info that people contribute.”
Similar projects have been launched by GoogleHealth and MicrosoftHealthVault, both of which allow patients to collect and share health records. But Trusera.com is unique in that it focuses on social networking and storytelling. It hopes to foster a sense of community where users can learn from one another’s experiences and seek advice.
Founder Keith Schorsch, a former senior executive at Amazon.com says the site’s motto, “The power of been there, is a real rallying cry. What we want to do is combine the power of those stories in an individual, and also collectively powerful, way."
While it might appear that Trusera.com is similar to other health sites like PatientsLikeMe and DailyStrength which have been online since 2006 and Caring.com which started last year, its advantage is that it does not pigeon hole its members by disease. Instead, Trusera seeks to connect health consumers by more than common illness.
Just like everything online, Health Websites suffer from a noise feedback problem. There are vast amounts of useful health information online, but to get to it, users often have to sift through irrelevant and even dangerous “facts”.
In January of this year a report by iCrossing found that more Americans are going to the Internet for medical advice than to their GP. Perhaps this is more a reflection on the health of the medical profession in the US than anything else. But even so this is startling.
The information that consumers are going to isn’t just on government and professional health websites but also blogs and support groups. Many people want to hear from fellow sufferers rather than from professionals.
Schrosch was motivated to create Trusera after he contracted Lyme disease in 2004. He went from doctor to doctor in Washington State undiagnosed and his health rapidly deteriorated until an East Coast friend suggested he get tested for Lyme. Schrosch found that the most trusted sources of information on the Net are often ex-patients, people who have been through similar experiences, rather than professionals.
For the most part, people contributing to Trusera are ordinary citizens who are suffering with diseases. “Humans are storytelling machines. It's one thing to ask for charted data and patient health records; it's another to ask for experiences. We're focusing on the latter,” says Schorsch. “There's incredible power in analysing and indexing the unstructured info that people contribute.”
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