Online Healthcare Communities

Internet healthcare communities for sharing for healthcare professionals, patients and the general public can be informative and supportive
By Elliot Feldman, freelance television and new media writer/editor Coney Dog Productions With the emergence of the Web as a necessary everyday tool for many people, online healthcare forums for healthcare professionals, patients and the general public are an integral part of the Internet and, in certain cases, have evolved into online interpersonal healthcare information communities.
 

Types of Internet healthcare communities include:

1. Health and medical information resource hubs for the general public
2. Medical information resource hubs for healthcare professionals
3. Patient-oriented online healthcare chat boards and support communities
4. Healthcare infomediaries services that act as an online network of medical information banks

Explore online healthcare forum information resource hubs for the general public

These types of medical information online communities for healthcare are geared to those users prone to medical self-diagnosis or to those seeking supplementary information to a doctor's diagnosis.
Try: A Microsoft product, MedStory.com is a search engine for online healthcare and medical information. WebMD and DrKoop.com (former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop) are two of the most popular and long-standing online health and medical information hubs. A part of NBC and iVillage, YourTotalHealth.com is an online healthcare community and medical information resource with a focus on women's health issues. HealthAtoZ.com, another in-depth medical information resource, offers a Nurse Chat IM-like feature.

For healthcare professionals, explore online communities for physicians or medical information hubs

In a typical doctor's office or medical care facility, medical information, news and developments can become unwieldy. Medical information database services and online healthcare communities for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals can help.
Try: IDS Healthcare, a part of IDS publishing, is an online information resource for the healthcare industry, providing medical white papers and healthcare industry and product news. Media giant Thomson Reuters offers Thomson Healthcare, a vast online medical information resource library used by healthcare providers, clinicians, pharmaceutical professionals, and more. Sermo calls itself "the fastest-growing community created by physicians for physicians," and it has free online healthcare boards where "physicians post observations and questions."

For patients and their family members, explore online healthcare chatboards and support communities

Patient-oriented online healthcare chat boards and support communities are for sharing medical information and recommendations as well as for interpersonal support.
Try: Patientslikeme.com describes its online healthcare boards and community as "patients helping patients live better every day." DailyStrength is a free and anonymous patient support community that includes 500-plus online healthcare boards and support groups for health issues. Take a tour of iMedix, an online medical information sharing community with a more focused approach than DailyStrength. With 5.5 million monthly visitors, MedHelp calls itself "the world's largest health community." The service includes active patient support forums and "Ask a Doctor" forums along with an extensive medical information library and personal health tracking applications.

For healthcare professionals, explore healthcare infomediary services

Healthcare infomediaries act as online medical information banks.
Try: An online service developed by Microsoft, HealthVault is part online patient information community and part personal online medical information storage service. In rural Northern California, the Mendocino Health Records Exchange is a prime example of patient medical records shared over a computer network by local medical professionals.

• Internet healthcare communities aimed at the general public stress that they provide supplemental information only, and that consumers should rely primarily on primary information from medical professionals.
• Because healthcare infomediary services are part of an emerging service technology, be careful not to expose yourself to potential personal privacy glitches.