I’m continuing to follow the fortunes of Revolution Health, the Steve Case venture into health care, consumerism, education, wellness, and peripheral matters. Not much new news since my last query; the website is still under construction, but you can enter as a “test guest” here.
The tech community seems underwhelmed.
Once you go thru the registration process, you can –
— get patient ratings on doctors and hospitals, but no objective measures of quality So, you’re relying on what other named and nameless people think about docs. Not sure I see the value there
— chat with other folks on the web to get their advice about your health situation. Yikes.
— enter data to track your health care expenses
— not buy insurance (although they seem to be working towards that)
— figure out your body mass index (I’m overweight!)
— shop (gee, that’s a surprise)
— learn about drugs (although there’s no info on uncommon ones like Fentora and Actiq)
One commenter was particularly acerbic – “What’s being built is MySpace for hypochondriacs”
Revolution Health and Sermo.com should combine their respective networking endeavors. And then you could have groups, like “The overprescribers and the overprescribed.”
Is it me or is this a scary idea?
“…Users are urged to ask questions and answer other users’ questions…”
Um lets see, “I have noticed that I have had this funny pain on the left side of my jaw for a week – it gets worse every time I smoke and walk up the stairs. Could it be a bad disc in my neck?”…
Or how about: “I’m 14 and I’ve been pregnant now for a while – it’s sow kewl… Anyhow, I’m due in 6 weeks but I keep getting my period – it keeps getting worse each day…Sandy – one of the other users says it’s normal because my fallopian tubes are grinding on my uterus. Should I just wait it out like she says?”
Maybe they’ll have a show and tell forum where users can post pictures of various warts, rashes, drips etc and other users can compare and and give advice – or… ???
What a novel idea… a website that breeds lawsuits. Viva Consumer Directed Medicine !!!
Before I say anything else I will tell you I am a Revolution Health employee. I understand the skepticism that comes when you start talking about average “Joe” and “Joanne” sharing medical information. However, when I was pregnant and had an unusual minor complication the only and best information I could find was in a pregrancy chat room devoted to the condition. The information I got from the other women in that chat room was a god send to me. And, truthfully, most of the time, we hedged our comments with “ask your doctor” or “my doctor said.” It was the conglomeration of information that was collected within that room, that we couldn’t find anywhere else. Sometimes it was a matter of what questions to ask and other times it was a matter of “new information” from another doctor. My hope for our forums is that we are able to offer that same level of intimacy and comfort, as well as information to our users.
Good Luck Sara. Quotes below from revolutionhealth forums:
“… Is bleeding during pregnancy normal?” – – “…well it really depends because i bled at 8 weeks but it was very very light, how far along are you and is it heavy or lihght”
“…using shark oil – not pills, but the actual oil from the fish – cures asthma in children. They say one teaspoon a day for 15 to 30 days does the trick…”
“…what does it mean when u have chest pains often” – -“…indigestion” – – “…If they come and go up under your left breast, it could be too much caffine. I was told that by my OBGYN doctor.”