Google前高管推出在线癌症社区

　　在最近举行的华盛顿TEDMED大会上，Google前首席健康策略师Roni Zeiger博士和癌症在线资源协会(Association of Cancer Online Resources)创始人Gilles Frydman这两位互联网和医学界的重量级领导者联合推出了面向癌症患者和照顾者的新在线社区——Smart Patients，旨在从多个技术层面实现以患者为中心的服务目标。

　　Smart Patients是供癌症患者、帮助者和癌症存活者分享知识和支持的众多在线社区中的一个。与其他在线社区不同的是，Smart Patients具有一些额外功能，如用户可在一个界面友好的页面上搜索临床试验，患者可以对未来临床试验设计提出反馈意见。

　　通过Google搜索在线癌症社区，在搜索结果第一页显示的是以下社区：Frydman’s Association of Cancer Online Resources (ACOR)，这是有关癌症的“始祖”级在线分享社区，提供142个在线癌症社区的链接。美国癌症学会提供的多种在线工具，包括一个设有聊天室、讨论版、私人电子邮件和其他功能的癌症存活者网络。美国癌症治疗中心提供的CancerCompass可让参与者分享最新的状况、关注朋友和对他们的活动进行评论。I Had Cancer是一个连接抗癌人群与癌症存活者的网站。

　　与上述网站一样，Smart Patients可让用户发起和跟踪谈话，并搜索关键词查找感兴趣的话题。Smart Patients的临床试验搜索功能基于clinicaltrials.gov数据库。Smart Patients的常见问题(FAQ)部分指出，该网站旨在补充而非代替医生的治疗，并且不包含广告，主要打算通过出售从网站上发布的自愿调查评论中提取的匿名数据来盈利。潜在客户包括公司、研究人员和想要更好了解癌症患者及其照顾者经历、观点和需求的教育者。该网站将遵循健康保险携带和责任法案(HIPAA)，以确保个人信息在这些商业行为中不被识别。

　　Smart Patients已与WorldOne Interactive (在线医生交流网站Sermo的所有者)、The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation和Cancer Commons结成合作关系。另一个合作伙伴是生物技术公司Oncosec Medical，该公司打算在设计其皮肤癌治疗的临床试验前收集患者反馈。

　　癌症是在线共享领域中受到关注的首批医学话题之一。随着Smart Patients这一最新网站投入运营，在线癌症社区有望上升到新的水平。

Online cancer community colaunched by ex-Google executive
Two heavyweight leaders in the blend of online and medical worlds have colaunched a new online community for cancer patients and caregivers called Smart Patients that takes the goal of patient-centered services in several technological directions.
Dr. Roni Zeiger, former chief health strategist for Google, and Gilles Frydman, founder of the Association of Cancer Online Resources, introduced Smart Patients at the recent TEDMED conference in Washington. TEDMED is the medical version of the popular TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conferences, where innovators and influential leaders give short talks on their activities and thoughts on the future.
Smart Patients is one of a number of online communities that connect cancer patients, helpers, and cancer survivors to share knowledge and support. What makes Smart Patients different is some of its additional features, such as a user-friendly way to search for clinical trials and the possibility of providing patient feedback on the design of future clinical trials.
The technological pedigrees of the cofounders already have brought considerable attention to Smart Patients in what might be considered a crowded field. A Google search for online cancer communities turned up the following on the first page of results alone. Frydman’s Association of Cancer Online Resources (ACOR), the granddaddy of the online sharing community when it comes to cancer, provides links to 142 online cancer communities. The American Cancer Society provides multiple online tools including a Cancer Survivors Network with chat rooms, discussion boards, private e-mail, and more. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America offers CancerCompass, where participants can share status updates, follow friends, and comment on their activities among other features. Another start-up, I Had Cancer, says it is beta testing a website that connects people battling cancer with cancer survivors.
Like some of these sites, Smart Patients lets users start and follow conversations and search for keywords to find the topics that interest them. Its clinical trials search function is based on the clinicaltrials.gov database. Smart Patients is intended to complement physician care, not replace it, according to its FAQ section, which also states that the site will include no advertising. Smart Patients plans to make money by selling anonymous data harvested from voluntary survey comments posted on the website. Potential customers include companies, researchers, and educators who want to better understand the experiences, insights, and needs of cancer patients and their caregivers. The site will follow guidelines from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure that individuals are not identified in these commercial transactions.
Smart Patients announced at TEDMED that it has inked partnerships with WorldOne Interactive (owner of the online physician networking site Sermo), The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, and Cancer Commons, according to news reports. Another partner is the biotechnology company Oncosec Medical, which aims to gather patient feedback before designing clinical trials of its skin cancer therapies. {nextpage}
Cancer was one of the first medical topics to gain traction in online sharing. With this latest entry from two power players in the field, online cancer communities may be moving to the next level.