Welcome to our latest guest post on healthcare and social media

Today Rachael Korinek introduces us to to HealClick and new social media website for patients to discuss healthcare issues.

Korinek shares “HealClick is a brand new and completely free website created for patients and by patients. This unique hybrid of social network and medical forum matches people based on shared details like diagnoses, symptoms, and treatment responses. This makes it much for patients to share and compare treatment experiences. The data that you and other patients provide will be made completely anonymous so it can fuel new research for autoimmune and neuroimmune conditions like Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Lyme Disease, ME/CFS, and so many others.

Sign up at www.HealClick.com

Help us grow at www.indiegogo.com/projects/revolutionizing-patient-sharing

This project was created by a team of patients in 2013. The co-founders are both chronically ill with multiple neuroimmune and autoimmune conditions. This unique perspective has allowed them to create a site that truly caters to the needs of patients.

Forums are extremely helpful  when researching treatments and for connecting with other patients. But, what about when you can’t find anyone your age?  Or when it seems like no one shares your set of co-conditions and symptoms? What about when you don’t respond normally to standard treatments? Come on over to HealClick.

Our unique matching feature allows you to focus on what’s important; your health. The site factors in your diagnoses, symptoms, treatments tried, and treatment responses and then tells you how similar you are to every other member. No more guessing whether you and another member share medical details in common, just check the match percentage under their profile picture.

Sometimes networking with people with different conditions can be just as beneficial as talking to someone with the same illness. We currently have patients representing over 20 different neuroimmune, autoimmune, and related conditions. Since we have so many conditions represented on our site you can also see how patients with other diagnoses are managing similar symptoms. There are many symptoms like fatigue that are common with multiple conditions and we believe that patients can learn from these other patients even though they might not share a diagnosis.

By combining information from your medical matches and ideas from patients with other conditions we believe that you will be better able to take charge of your health care. Come sign up, make meaningful connections for social support, share your treatment reviews, and compare your results with the results of other patients. Who knows, you might even end up with some new ideas to bring up at your next appointment with your Doctor!

Whenever people share their experiences and network with other patients online they generate huge amounts of data.  Previously, the majority of this valuable health data has gone unused. What if instead, all of this data could be used by medical researchers to help diagnose, treat, or even cure us? That’s HealClick’s goal. But don’t worry, we take pride in protecting patient privacy every step of the way. The data that you share on the site will never be made public and will be completely stripped of all identifiers before being shared with researchers. Check out the link for more information about HIPAA-compliant data security.

We are so excited to share this technology with you. We also want you to know that we pride ourselves on being there for patients.  I don’t have to tell you that having quality social support is important. Chronic illness can be incredibly isolating and hard for other people to relate to or understand. The founders as well as the entire HealClick team all patients. We understand what you’re going through on a personal level and we strive to make HealClick a place where you can find support on bad days and celebration on your good days.

Come join us at www.healclick.com. We can’t wait to meet you!

Still have questions? Check out our blog for answers to 5 frequently asked questions:  http://blog.healclick.com/uncategorized/we-got-answers