Meddik Helps You Create Your Own Health Network

"Many of the issues that exist within healthcare can be solved simply by increasing communication channels." Tim Soo, Cofounder, Meddik

Meddik is a new site that gives you the opportunity to create—anonymously—a personal health network of people who share health challenges similar to yours. You can browse advice, questions, and stories while sharing as much or as little information as you choose.

You may be wondering how Meddik is different from sites like Patients Like Me, Cure Together and other condition-focused online forums.

The major difference is that Meddik is the first to combine user-submitted content with a design that tags a users' specified interests and then uses those tags to create networks of people with similar profiles. When users sign in, discussion threads, articles and resources generated by others in their network come up. Content is moderated by users—up-voting and down-voting determines rank and helps ensure accuracy and relevancy. 

More and more patients and caregivers are connecting online in order to supplement professional medical advice, according a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center. In "Peer-to-Peer Healthcare," a report based on the study, author Susannah Fox quotes a woman who is caring for her husband:

“We have found that we get helpful info from both doctors and other patients/caregivers. Other patients/caregivers are almost more helpful when it comes to this disease because as a group they have more info than any one individual doctor has. We have gotten info from other patients/caregivers that we've then told the oncologist about so he could look into it. Sometimes we feel like we're educating our doctor more than he is educating us.”

The statement not only supports the value of peer-to-peer learning but also validates the potential of Meddik's mission "to tap into the power of the masses...ultimately accelerating the pace of innovation."

Meddik, which was launched in July of this year by cofounders Tim Soo and Benjamin Shyong, is in the early stages of development and actively recruiting users. Take a few minutes to explore the site and, if so inclined, drop a question, story, or pearl of wisdom and watch the ripple effects of people helping people.

References

Medical School vs Doing a Start-Up. Accessed at http://www.timsoo.com/2012/08/06/medical-school-vs-doing-a-start-up/

Meddik is using its recently-raised $750K in Seed funds to build a ‘health network’ based on whole health profiles. Accessed at http://startupbeat.com/2012/06/08/meddik-is-using-its-recently-raised-750k-in-seed-funds-to-build-a-health-network-based-on-whole-health-profiles/

Meddik's Bet: Peers beat search on health questions. Accessed at http://gigaom.com/2012/05/23/meddiks-bet-peers-beat-search-on-health-questions/

Peer-to-Peer Healthcare by Susannah Fox. Accessed at http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/P2PHealthcare.aspx