Editor's note: it took 11 months, but now I can finally elaborate on the work I'm doing with the startup, Whitewater Health! We've made a lot of progress, and I'd like to share it with you and ask for your help, if you're willing.
For the last several months, I've been helping Whitewater Health develop a personalized information platform called Profile Health that delivers hand-picked health information that is (hopefully) relevant and engaging for people with various health conditions. To begin, the health condition we’re focused on is diabetes. The concept behind Profile Health is that all of the good stuff a person or caregiver might want to find on the web that's health-related - social media, clinical research, product reviews, blog posts from first-person experience, helpful resources, general health information - is brought together, by a real person, in one place, based on your interests and demographics (i.e. the “profile” you can create - hence the name). The web is kind of one big mess of information and most people don't have the time or desire to weed through everything themselves. It's a little hit-or-miss, and people tend to have thing scattered - a Pinterest board here, a blog reader there, some favorited Tweets and followed hashtags over there.
But imagine if you had someone - an actual, live person - scouring the web for your particular interests, and saving them all for you somewhere that you can log in whenever you're interested in catching up. All you'd have to do is tell them a few things about yourself, but nothing too personal. There wouldn't be any ads, no one would be mining your data, and it would always be free for you to use.
That person who's scouring the web for you? That's me! I'm doing that! (Alongside a bunch of other things.) That's one of the main points of Profile Health: people helping people. We believe an actual person who has experience living with/around your health condition(s) is better than a search engine algorithm at pointing you to what’s meaningful when it comes to health information. I'm really excited about what we've developed and how we can help people with diabetes - and eventually, with other conditions too - find the most valuable information for them, and gain a sense of community and support (and better health) as a result. (And what a great way for people to find the DOC this way, too - I especially love the idea of someone newly diagnosed being able to use Profile Health to find the blogs, forums, and other resources that can help them feel less alone.)
Profile Health will continue to evolve, but we're now at a point where we would like to have people check it out and tell us what they think. So please, if you would, have a look around: www.profilehealth.com (You'll notice that your feed defaults to showing Diet and Exercise posts; please adjust those filters to suit whatever you're wanting to see.)
The first part of my ask is this: if you’re comfortable doing so, I’d love to hear your feedback. You can use the "feedback" feature on the ProfileHealth site, or email me directly at textingmypancreas [ at] gmail.com. Is this something you could see being valuable? Would you use it yourself, or recommend it as a way for others to “find” their diabetes online community? What else can we do with this to make it a resource that people enjoy using? (And for those of you whose websites and posts are linked to, please tell me if you're okay with how we've done things. I've tried to link out to people in a very respectful way, as we exist to point people in the direction of others' work on their own sites.)
The second part of my ask is that we'd like your help in finding some places on the web that I may not already be aware of. While I have some knowledge and ability to curate for the categories I’m not personally connected to (for example, I don’t live with type 2 diabetes; I’m not a teen; I’m not a senior citizen, etc.), I can't claim to be an expert there - but maybe you are!
So this is where I get to announce a(nother) contest: you have a chance to win a $100 Target gift card in exchange for pointing us to some of your favorite DOC resources! (U.S. residents only, please - sorry!)
Here's what you have to do: if you have personal experience that helps you find relevant information for our demographic catagories (Teens, Senior Citizens, Caregivers, T2, etc.), please leave a blog comment on this post that lists five of your go-to resources for that interest area. (It will help if you can point me to things I'm not already aware of, so if they're in my blogroll already - I've got that one covered!) Your comment should also tell me what your personal experience with diabetes is, and include your demographic catagory (Adult, Teen, Caregiver, etc.). I'm also using Rafflecopter for this contest so that you can share your email address with me anonymously, instead of in your public-facing blog comment - I'll need to track you down if you win! (The gift card code will be emailed to the winner.)
Something like this:
I've lived with type 1 diabetes for 27 years, and wear an insulin pump and CGM. I recently had a daughter and found the online community a very supportive resource through my pregnancy. I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 6, so my “categories” would be: Adult; T1; Pregnancy and Diabetes; Diabetes Tech.
Here are some of my favorite places:
1. That One Tumblr Page About Diabetes (in your comments, actually give me a URL to follow please)
2. A Diabetes Blog I Really Connect With
3. A Twitter Account I Really Find Valuable Info From
4. Another Diabetes Blog With Good Perspective
5. An Instagram Account That Posts Diabetes Stuff I Can Relate To
This contest will be open until January 15th, so feel free to go search and then come back to list your resources! The Whitewater Health team will review all of the entries, narrow them to a Top Ten, and then ask for a community vote to determine our winner.
And as always - please email me with any questions or concerns you may have. I want to be very transparent about disclosing my relationships and biases, and the work I do with Whitewater Health is included in that. If something feels icky, please tell me. :)
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