HealCam: Chatroulette in Medicine July 12, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Innovation, Medgadget, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.trackback
The Team of Medgadget just launched HealCam, the medical alternative of Chatroulette, the 2010 internet sensation. Obviously, they need the critical mass in order to make it work. The idea is great, the only problem might be the willingness of patients to reveal their real identity online.
If you would like to talk to others with the same condition as yours, go to the site, press start and choose a health category, say diabetes, and you will be connected to a random person with diabetes. When your conversation is over, you press next and you are automatically connected to another person with diabetes. You can talk to as many people as you wish. We envision the site as a large meeting place, where people can exchange information, get or give moral support, and learn from others. No registration required to participate in the video chats. So please check it out, and spread the word!
Follow the improvements on their blog.
Definitely a critical mass problem. I tried at 9 am on a Monday morning (today, July 12th). No one was online. Of course, aside from one Tweet, I hadn’t seen any adverts for HealCam. Looks like a decent way to set up connections with people sharing a problem. You select your gender; select whether you want to talk to a man, a woman, or either; and select a topic. You have the choice of back/neck, cancer, heart condition, diabetes, or pregnancy/childbirth. I guess that’s a pretty good list to start. They might want to consider adding a few topics like: skin diseases, HIV/AIDS, eye problems, Chrohn’s disease, kidney/bladder problems, and a few subtopics under cancer.
Of course, right now, the problem is users. I’ll check back later.
Isn’t that Jessica Alba in the screenshot? Is she a spokesperson for the site, or just a lookalike?
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