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WebMD Founder, Dr. Oz to Launch Web 3.0 Healthcare Platform

Jeff Arnold, founder of WebMD, has partnered with health expert and TV host Dr. Mehmet Oz to launch Sharecare Inc., a Web 3.0 platform organizing and answering health-related questions for consumers. Additional investors in the new venture include Discovery Communications, Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television and HSW International, a company that develops and operates Internet businesses.

The launch of the Web site, www.sharecare.com, is planned for 2010. It will include a customizable social Q&A platform that is pre-populated with hundreds of thousands of questions and answers from the site's expert content contributors, as well as viewpoints from consumers who have had direct experience with a condition or illness. Initial content contributors include such prestigious individuals and acclaimed groups as:

• Hospitals and academic medial centers – Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
• Leading health and wellness authors – Dr. Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen (both Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers), Deepak Chopra and Dr. Dean Ornish (Harmony Books).
• Associations and societies – The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, a global non-profit organization comprised of approximately 6,000 heart and lung surgeons, researchers and allied health professionals.
• Healthcare professionals – Three million healthcare professionals, including Dr. Robert Kaufmann, Dr. Erik Hoy and Dr. Mona Lisa.
• Online healthcare resources – answers from Discovery Health, HowStuffWorks.com, Oprah.com, Healthy Humans, a company bringing together top integrative doctors.
• Consumers – individuals and the peer to peer support group Daily Strength.
• Not for profits – Challenge America, a national organization providing support to returning wounded military.
• Knowledge Partners – manufacturers can share their research about product development, consumer product development, or pharmaceutical and medical device discoveries. Dove has already signed on to help answer the thousands of consumers' questions about skin care.

Publishing group Simon & Schuster has created an e-commerce widget for sharecare.com that will allow consumers to purchase individual chapters or an entire book (in digital or physical formats) from which some of the expert content is derived. Simon & Schuster intends to make this capability available to other publishers and authors on the site.

• "Sharecare's vision is to build an ecosystem that simplifies the search for health and wellness information by organizing all of the questions of health and providing multiple answers representing different points of view," Arnold, currently chief of global digital strategy of Discovery Communications and chairman emeritus of www.HowStuffWorks.com, said in a statement. "Leveraging the power of social networking, our contributors 'share care' through both personal experience and expert knowledge, bringing online healthcare into the 21st Century."

This initiative provides marketers with a unique opportunity to reach consumers with requested and much-needed information. According to Manhattan Research data, 60% of consumers turn to the Internet as a resource for healthcare decisions and more than 60 million U.S. adults participate in health-related social media. Consumers are using the Internet for healthcare information and support at more points in their treatment continuum. They are becoming more empowered with managing their healthcare, and use the Internet as a top source to help guide them through their journey.