14 DAY TRIAL // When you thought social networking had done it all, covering different areas of interest and meeting everyone's needs, WellNet HealthCare, a U.S. based company, announced the launch of a medical social network, Point to Point Healthcare. By subscribing to the website, people can test the beta launch which is promised to take place in August.
Subscribers will have to share everything related to their medical file, from their insurance status to the types of medication they were previously prescribed. The website also wants to be a place where patients can talk with specialists, like doctors and pharmacists, without needing an appointment. The subscription cannot be made by individuals, but by companies that want to have their employees' medical data better managed and also give them an easier possibility to interact with health care professionals. All the information available in the records has been added up since 1994, when WellNet HealthCare started cooperating with companies that wanted to keep better track of their employees' medical file in order to adapt the corporate health plans to the real needs.
Subscription to the network is free of charge, as the company wants to attract, at the beginning, a great number of clients. Although the ambitious project seems innovative and useful enough to assure many subscribers, there are some potential inconveniences that must be taken into account.
Employers would probably have a greater access to the medical files, which doesn't leave so much room for privacy, as we're talking about sensitive information like conditions that someone doesn't want to be made public to the whole company. WellNet assures that the only information available for everyone will be depersonalized. The information will consist of statistics about, for example, how many people in the company suffer from a particular disease. In a small firm, not even this leads to perfect anonymity, as persons can be identified by exclusion. On the other hand, practitioners are busy enough with their real professional experience. An online social network, where they have the same role of guiding and offering advice to their patients may be too much for them, so many could not agree to enter the program.