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Vasantha Gullapalli

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Facebook like sharing and learning for healthcare

There is a lot of health information available but no real and reliable, accessible and actionable health data. In today’s scenario if one had a medical query (for e.g. what is the cure for tendonitis), one would start with a google search and come across multiple websites offering basic to specific information which is disorganized, unstructured, difficult to manage and even difficult to validate. The end result of the query currently depends on the perseverance, patience and competency of the user to navigate the information generated by the query. The resulting conclusions drawn by the user is inconsistent and in most cases leaves users with more questions than answers. In all cases, users are left to the mercy of their current health service providers.
What we found in our quest is that after the initial readings, all the information on the web is too generic and hard/impossible for non-medical people like us to infer anything useful from it. There were lot of forums and blogs which described what people were going through, but it was not always complete information or structured enough for us to piece their journeys together.
From such personal experiences was born the idea of myMEDistry, the goal of which is to help people around the globe capture their medical journeys in a structured manner to help others easily find them and more importantly use them. We believe such sharing of real world experiences makes it possible to collaborate in a global level and make breakthroughs in newer treatments possible.
Come, join myMEDistry BETA today and help us make a difference in the global healthcare experiences. Also, provide us feedback as we are working on the next version based on all your feedback

Topics: Healthcare e-healthcare social media
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  • Vasantha Gullapalli

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    Jan 22 2012: Thanks for taking the time Jeff. We totally agree that mymedistry or for that matter any such web resource alone cannot be regarded as sound medical advice and one needs to be very careful while taking them directly. We are at best a research resource to help patients be better prepared by reading about what others like them are going through. While I agree that your medical journey is yours alone, I feel strongly that others can learn from your experiences and at a minimum be better prepared to ask their doctors' the right questions. Our page on cholesterol is just showing some users' journey with high cholesterol, shows the medicines they have been prescribed and side effects they are experiencing..So, this can help someone else who recently got their cholesterol numbers and are being prescribed some other medication.
    The idea came from a number of personal experiences where we felt we could have benefited immensely if only we could connect with others who are going through a similar medical condition or treatment.
    http://www.mymedistry.com/blog-entry/imagine-world

    • Jeff Cable

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      Jan 23 2012: Thank you for your response, Vasantha. I believe that the current medical research ought to be made freely available to members of the public. It begs several questions: Only impartial research that advances medical knowledge should be available. It should be pre-digested so that the language it is couched in is easily understood by non-medically trained people. It should not be interpreted to give false hope to people suffering from progressive diseases. It should be non-sensationalist in its terminology. It should reflect the current medical position with regards to best clinical practice. It should be maintained by an institution with no vested interest in promoting any particular viewpoint.

      I think it can be helpful for people who are suffering with similar conditions to talk to others who are or have experienced the same condition. In my experience, there needs to be careful moderation of debates held under the notion that similar conditions will produce some sort of common bond between people with shared experiences. Support groups (for specific diseases) appear to be the most efficient way of sufferers gaining support for their medical condition and I would favour this approach rather than a random unwell people website.

      Nonsense tends to be prevalent when healthcare and treatment options are discussed among people without benefit of medical backgrounds... it even abounds when people are medically qualified! For a medical resource to be really useful it has to be current and utterly impartial. The implication is that the written word is not necessarily true nor unbiased and all possible treatment options ought to be discussed with the knowledge seeker's personal medical practitioner, before the person acts upon advices gleaned from such a website.

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