On June 18 RevolutionHealth.com, a free online health and medical website that combines expert content and online tools with the power of social networking, launched its first online health fair.
This is an amazing project: Revolution Health has partnered with ten national non-profit organizations, each of which has an online “booth” at the health fair. For each visitor to a booth, Revolution Health will make a donation to that partner for a total of up to $10,000.
Since the launch of the health fair, and EchoDitto’s recent work with Revolution Health, my interest in the online health community has grown. I was particularly touched by those blogs relating to kidney disease and kidney failure. It was amazing to me that someone could be suffering with a terminal illness, yet still find the time to understand the importance of writing about their experience. Kidney disease bloggers write about family members effected by the disease or their various symptoms and surgeries, while IBS sufferers make common jokes and provide support for other sufferers, and everyday bloggers with sleep disorders provide insight to a completely different way of life.
It was especially striking to me to read blogs by cancer sufferers and then get in touch with them through their postings -- only to receive a “return to sender message.” The reason? I would revisit the blog and realize that the last post was written three months ago. The blogger had died.
After receiving these tragic messages, it struck me how important the online health community is, and how vitally important it is to so many people. For so many it is truly a matter of life and death -- a chance for them to reach out to others. Chances are, we all know someone suffering from kidney disease, or IBS, cancer, autism, celiac disease, a sleep disorder, or mental illness. Chances are, some of us already have, or will, take care of someone suffering with a disease or may even have to depend on other caregivers to take care of our loved ones.
So why should you visit the health fair? Because these organizations are doing their best to raise money towards a great cause -- a cause that all of us at some point in our lives will be involved in.
