Share Your Health Wisdom!

A lot of people have asked me why I'm going to launch OrganizedWisdom focused exclusively on health and health care. Well, there are three main reasons: (fyi - if you haven't read my previous post describing the company, click here first).

1. My own experience using "the wisdom of others" when making health-related decisions and judgments for myself and my family. It was through wisdom of others, not information found in a typical Google or WebMD search, that I found success for a lot of health-related issues in my life -- asthma, infertility, health insurance, weight loss, weight training, a high fever when our daughter was six weeks old...this list goes on and on. Three quick examples I'll share are: Through the wisdom of my friend Jack's little brother, my exercise-induced asthma is under control and I can exercise confidently every day without fear of an attack.  Through the wisdom of two other friends Rich Schoor (a doctor) and Peter Kash (a biotech venture capitalist), my wife and I were able to conceive naturally for both our daughters after almost 2 years and thousands of dollars of infertility treatments seeing the wrong doctors by switching to different doctors and different treatments.  Finally, through the wisdom of my new friend Paul Zane Pilzer, I learned about a new program called a Health Savings Account that has allowed me to cut my monthly health insurance premiums in half while saving thousands of dollars a year in a tax-deferred savings account. This is just the beginning...I have countless other examples where the wisdom of others helped us through a health-related experience (which, by the way, includes doctor's wisdom too (i.e. my brother Howard and cousin Scott.))  From finally losing weight and getting in shape, to dealing with a high fever when our daughter was six weeks old, to understanding false test results for serious diseases like cystic fibrosis...as I said earlier, the list goes on an on).

2. Although it seems as though there is more than enough health information online, the best stuff still isn't available. As you see from all of the reasons from my story above, the "best information" cannot be found easily on the Internet because its not on the Internet...yet. It's in the heads of the millions of people walking around the streets or the person sitting beside you on the bus who doesn't realize the value of the positive or negative experience they have had and the impact it can have on the lives of those people facing similar challenges to them. There are plenty of consumer medical sites and organizations with great clinical information about a disease or illness. And there are definitely more than enough chat rooms and message boards to sift through to read about peoples experiences. What you can't find is a place to go where the health experiences from real people are organized in a useful way so that you can make decisions and judgments about where to turn next.

3. Just about everyone online is looking for health information. 80% of the people using the Internet or 95 million people are searching for health information online according to Pew/Internet Health Information Online Report which was published in May 2005. I can honestly say that I don't think I know one person who hasn't searched for some health information online. (this includes my wife, my parents and even the most technology-phobic friends.  Enough said.

So, its for those reasons, among many others, that we're looking for people who have faced a wide variety of health challenges, either having experienced it themselves or through a family member or close friend and are willing to share them with others. We're looking for people who want to make a difference. People who don't want others to have a negative experience when they are faced with similar challenges. People with experiences dealing with ADHD, Aging, Allergies & Asthma, Arthritis, Brain & Nervous System, Cancer, Chronic Pain, Depression, Diabetes, Diet & Nutrition, Digestive Disorders, General Health, Heart, Infertility, Liver & Kidney Disease, Men's Health, Mental Health, Parenting, Pregnancy, Reproductive Health, Sexual Health & Relationships, Skin & Beauty or Women's Health.

If you are interested in being among our first contributors, all you have to do is visit The Organized Wisdom Web site at www.organizedwisdom.com and complete the I Want to Share My Wisdom! Form. Let us know you want to share and once we hear from you, we'll let you know the best way to get started so you can share your wisdom!