We see San Mateo, CA-based Wellsphere as a company to watch in Online Health/PHR/EMR. Here's the interview with their founders Dave Kashen and Ron Gutman:1. We read this in your first press release: “Unlike other online communities, Wellsphere was created around the unique idea that bringing together well people, places, and things would help drive members to actually do the things that make them healthier and happier. Wellsphere is dedicated to helping millions of people improve their lives.”—tell us more about how you’re different from other Category: Online Health/Subcategory: Web 2.0 sites?
Wellsphere communities combine the benefits of the global reach of the Web with the advantage of localization – connecting people with similar concerns and interests across the world, while ensuring each user’s experience is personal and relevant, and engendering a deep sense of trust and familiarity within the communities. By including a comprehensive, nationwide directory of local wellness resources, we help users not only learn about ways to live better but actually find practical real world solutions that are right for them and TAKE ACTION!.
2. Personalization/Social Support & Community/Incentives—tell us about these three legs of the Wellsphere stool, in more detail?
Personalization:
Wellsphere connects each member with the advice, support and resources that are most likely to be helpful to them based on their unique interests and goals. Each member has their own personalized homepage, complete with news, blogs and real time updates of advice, resources, classes and events posted in their local communities.
Social Support & Community:
The core of Wellsphere is the community. By connecting people around similar interests, goals, resources and events, we enable them to get the support, motivation and accountability to achieve their goals. Wellsphere lets existing networks of friends share what they do to 'get active, eat better, and unwind" and helps members connect, find activity partners and share advice.
Incentives:
Wellsphere's WellPoints system rewards users for participating on Wellsphere - as they make progress toward their goals, or help others. Members can earn WellPoints for posting advice, tracking their goals and cheering each other on. In Wellsphere's Enterprise Solutions, members can redeem their WellPoints for valuable prizes.
3. We read about this: “Stanford University Teams up With Wellsphere to Launch Online Health & Wellness Community.” Tell us more about how it works?
Wellsphere builds online healthy living communities for large organizations to improve the health and well-being of their populations, and reduce healthcare costs. Based on extensive research, Wellsphere’s groundbreaking platform works by connecting each member with local health and wellness resources, activities and services that match their unique interests and goals, and provides the personalized advice and social support they need to sustain healthy habits. See how the BeWell@Stanford community helps members to "Get active, Eat better, and Unwind" at http://stanford.wellsphere.com.
4. We read this web page: http://www.wellsphere.com/enterpriseSolutions.s. Explain more about “Enterprise Solutions”?
In addition to our public consumer site, we offer large organizations a turnkey platform to quickly and easily form their own online health and wellness communities - connecting employees with a host of enterprise and local resources, and providing access to a wealth of interactive tools, advice, knowledge and support to meet their ongoing health and lifestyle needs. By leveraging the inherent virality and established trust of their existing networks, Wellsphere enables large organizations to quickly establish robust communities and drive employee engagement.
Wellsphere’s exclusive BeWellthy Rewards program offers organizations a fun, motivating way to drive continued participation by giving employees redeemable WellPoints for engaging in the community and achieving their health and wellness goals.
5. Wellsphere seems to have a focus on bridging plans and action—many of us try to exercise more/live healthier/eat less but fail. What was the impetus for this?
Wellsphere was started based on research we did while at Stanford - our multidisciplinary group of graduate students and professors was very focused on finding an effective, efficient way to help alleviate our country's health crisis (obesity epidemic, high levels of stress, inactivity, explosive healthcare costs).
Realizing that as much as 50% of the problems are preventable based on lifestyle behaviors, we focused our research on building a model for helping people to make healthier lifestyle choices and for sustainable habits. We recognized early on that the key problem when it comes to healthy living is not information - most people know what they should do and many even want to do it - but motivation. From the beginning our aim has been to give our members practical ways to stay motivated, get the personalized advice and support they need, and find the real world resources that can help them actually achieve their goals.
6. Tell us about the nationwide Local Resources directory; seems unique.
Yes, we have the most comprehensive nationwide directory of wellness resources - including gyms, yoga studios, spas, personal trainers, nutritionists, hiking trails, walking groups and more. We saw that there was no one place to find information about neighborhood resources that can help people live healthier, happier lives, and so we decided to create it. This is a key part of our platform, going beyond just online advice to real world action. Making it quick and easy to find the right resource can make the difference between making real changes, and remaining stagnant. There are already so many obstacles for people, so we wanted to eliminate a major one - finding the right resources for you in your local community. The Local Resources also serve as the basis for micro-communities, connecting like-minded people with common interests. Every member of the site enjoys a personalized, localized experience - we show them the resources related to their interests and goals that are relevant for them where they live or work.
7. Few online health sites have video, despite the success of YouTube et al. What will you do in this regard, if anything?
Wellsphere includes videos, enabling users to share online streaming videos, from both external sites such as YouTube as well as from their computers and mobile phones. From exercise videos to cooking demos to inspiring sports moments, we think videos are a great way to motivate people and convey rich content. Every community has videos that are relevant to it - so Exercise community members can find workout and aerobic videos, while Healthy Cooking community members can enjoy cooking demos and instructional videos.
8. How will you create revenue?
We generate revenue by selling our Enterprise Solutions (http://www.wellsphere.com/enterpriseSolutions.s) to large organizations seeking to improve the health and well-being of their populations, and reduce healthcare costs.
9. Besides Wellsphere, what 1-2 players do you like in your space, and why?
We are fans of anyone who is taking a proactive approach to keeping people healthy, and who recognizes that people are different, live in different environments and have access to different resources - and incorporates that realization into their solution.
10. Will you offer a PHR directly, or via a partnership? If so, how might it differ from others?
We enable users to have their own profile, which is focused on the key areas that are most important for enabling our members to find the resources and advice that are right for them in terms of their healthy living goals. Our flexible platform enables companies to integrate with existing PHRs.
We cover the key Online Health/PHR/EMR companies in our wiki; the entire list is here. Should we be covering your company? Email us at mattc [@] marketintellnow.com.
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