MyHealthTeams.com - only type 2s on their forum, it seems

I found out about MyHealthTeams.com while I was browsing LinkedIn. It seems that someone I’m connected to is linked to their COO. Anyway, I decided to click over to learn more as the company creates forums for those with various chronic illnesses.

When I got to their diabetes team forum it specifically said it was only for type 2s. I know numbers-wise there are more of them, but I see no logical reason to not have type 1s too.

In their words:

We help people connect

MyHealthTeams creates social networks for communities of people facing chronic conditions (everything from Lupus and multiple sclerosis, to autism, breast cancer, and COPD). We believe that when people facing the same chronic condition are able to connect with and learn from each other, ask questions, get referrals and share tips with other people who personally understand what it’s like to face that condition, health outcomes improve. You’re not alone, and you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. In a few years time, we believe that if you’re diagnosed with a chronic condition your doctor will prescribe one of our social networks. The evolving healthcare system is not set up to provide the day-to-day validation, perspective and practical tips that patients can provide each other, and a growing body of evidence is showing that strong social patient networks lead to improved health outcomes.

We are an independent, venture-capital backed startup based in San Francisco working on a mission we love.

Our vision of providing safe, objective, patient-driven social networks began with the launch of MyAutismTeam – the largest and fastest-growing social network for parents of children with Autism in the world. We followed with the launch of MyBCTeam for women with breast cancer, MyMSTeam for people with multiple sclerosis, MyCrohnsAndColitisTeam, and a growing list of social networks serving the nearly 1 in 2 adults facing a chronic condition. Today with hundreds of thousands of members, millions of conversations, and a presence in eight countries, MyHealthTeams has become the fastest growing and most engaging set of social networks for web and mobile apps in healthcare.

So my question are these?

  • Anyone know anything about this company?

  • They’re not a nonprofit, so what do you think the profit play is? All startups eventually have to figure out how they’ll make money or they hope they’ll be acquired.

  • Should we remind/educate them that type 1 diabetes is, by definition a chronic illness too?

The diabetes community is very lucky to have TuDiabetes and when I see stuff like this it brings it home even more.

Interesting. One possibility is that they plan to add a T1 site some time in the future. Another is that they are simply reacting to the fact that T2 is so much more prevalent, i.e., the largest population or audience. Another is that they just don’t get it. In any event, I see the artificial separation as a bad idea. But of course they didn’t ask me.

Anyway, I signed up for it to see what will happen. At first glance the look and feel reminds me more of Facebook than TuDiabetes. I’ll let it run for a while and then form some conclusions.

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Well. There was only one way to find out, so I asked if there was a T1 forum somewhere I didn’t see. I got the following response:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.

We don’t currently have a page for type 1 diabetes but that may happen in the future. Thanks for your interest!

Best,

Lynette
DiabetesTeam

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Thanks for joining.

Let’s see what they do. I was really surprised it simply wasn’t part of the diabetes forum. Then they could have type 1 and type 2 areas. Seems a little weird.