Networking While Protecting Patient Privacy
Dr. Lyle Dennis, a neurologist in Suffern, NY, has taken his years of practicing medicine and developed a site that fuses that knowledge with today’s powerful social media tools. The result: HealthKeep – a secure, anonymous and fully HIPAA-compliant health network that connects individuals with others who share the same symptoms, medications, and conditions, as well as doctors.
Users are automatically connected with people who have similar health profiles in real-time discussion streams. If you type in celiac disease, you’ll be linked with other celiac-sufferers.
Aside from empowering patients to learn more about their condition, the ramifications of this site is huge. Data compiled can be tremendously helpful to medical professionals who can follow streams and comment on issues in their practice area, and drugmakers who can track reactions – adverse or positive – to their products.
