Introducing: The Health Activist Blog Carnival

We're very excited to announce a new feature of the WEGO Health Community today: The Health Activist Blog Carnival!

New to the Blog Carnival Concept? Don't worry, it's easy!

Each month, we'll post a new theme for Health Activists to consider and write about. Once you've finished your post, you can submit it to the Blog Carnival by leaving a comment in our Health Bloggers Group. At the end of the month, we'll feature a few of our favorite posts here on the WEGO Health Blog, and make sure everyone has a chance to read and review all the the entries.

Why participate?

The Blog Carnival is a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with other Health Activists - and a great way to reach more people! Plus, you'll get to hear what other Health Activists think about each topic and get some food for thought each month.

What's this month's theme?

The theme for February is: Relationships and Chronic Illness

Whether you want to write about your own experience, how you've handled this topic in your community, or something else entirely, the direct you take is completely up to you.

Whatever you chose to write about, there are two things we ask that you do:

1. Let others know that your post is for the Health Activist Blog Carnival by including the following text at the end of your post: "This post is my entry in February's Health Activist Blog Carnival. If you're interested in participating too, you can read all about it here: http://blog.wegohealth.com/2010/02/introducing-health-activist-blog.html"
2. Leave a comment on this discussion within the Health Bloggers Group with a link to your entry post. We hope you'll visit the discussion thread often to check out the latest entries and learn what your fellow Health Activists have to say on the subject!

That's it!

Use our theme as inspiration for a post on your WEGO Health Blog or your blog on another blogging platform (or both!) and let us know what you think about relationships and chronic illness - we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

How Health Activists Can Help in Haiti

Our mission at WEGO Health has always been to empower Health Activists to help others.

Today, we hope you'll join us in helping to bring healthcare to victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

WEGO Health has made a $500 donation to assist Partners In Health with their earthquake relief efforts.

We chose Partners In Health because:

• They have been providing community based health care in Haiti since 1985
• Their hospitals and medical staff are already on the ground, mobilized to support the relief effort
• Partners In Health are online Health Activists like us: see their Twitter feed @PIH_org for updates

Health Activists are passionate about helping others both on- and off-line, and we encourage all of you to join us in making a donation. There are over 3,500 members of the WEGO Health community: together, we can get much needed medical care to Haiti.

Partners In Health is just one of many organizations providing relief during this critical time. As Health Activists, we're building a list of other deserving health organizations in Haiti.

You can help by contributing to the discussion "Health Activists Recommend Support for these Health Organizations".

Jump in, and let the WEGO Health community know about organizations on the ground in Haiti that have your support.

Spotlight: Tosin Ola, Sickle Cell Warrior

Spotlight On: Tosin Ola, aka the Sickle Cell Warrior
Active in the Sickle Cell Community since: June 2007
Occupation: I'm a registered nurse. There are 2 main reasons I became a nurse. The first was to pay it forward: all the help, support and care that I had received during my sickle cell crises'. The second was to counteract all the negativity that people with chronic pain deal with in the medical setting.

What do you do when you're not raising awareness about SCD? Usually I'm doing this one way or another. When I'm not at work, on the phone talk to a sickle cell warrior, or online doing stuff related to sickle cell; I'm spending time with my fiancé, planning our wedding and researching grad schools.

How did you get started in the Sickle Cell Disease Community online?
I got into the sickle cell online community because I was looking for some information, encouragement and support for dealing with the condition. In the first week, I joined a few sickle cell forums online. However, I felt like a stranger and couldn’t really relate to the dichotomy with the cheery “all is well because of God’s grace” messages and the pitiful “my life sucks because I have sickle cell” messages. I scoured Google and Technorati for a sickle cell blog. I pretty much typed in “sickle cell blog” into the word search and came up with just a few results. The few that I found had just a couple of posts, as if the bloggers had good intentions but never really got into updating frequently.

A common theme between the SCD forums I visited and the SCD blogs that I checked out that day was the lightness. It seemed to me that the creators were hiding the dark, ugly side of sickle cell; and avoiding those difficult topics, which was what I longed to read about and connect with someone on. To fill the void that I couldn’t find, Sickle Cell Can Kiss my A$$ was born.

Read the full interview here.

This is only the first part of Tosin's interview. Click here to read Part 2!

Be sure to check out Tosin's WEGO Health Profile and welcome her to the community!

Interested in learning more about Sickle Cell Disease? Join the WEGO Health Group.

Spotlight: Phyllis Zachery-Thomas

Spotlight: Phyllis Zachery-Thomas (you may know her as przthomas) Website: AGASCA & SCD Soldiers Twitter: @przthomas Occupation: Retired accountant Hobbies? Blogging

How did you get started in the Sickle Cell Disease Community online?

After starting my own personal facebook page, I decided to start a page for the Advocacy Group for Adults with Sickle Cell Anemia (AGASCA). I created AGASCA as an offline support group in my home town of Dallas after meeting several people who were in the hospital at the same time that I was. It wasn't officially established as a non-profite, but that's where I saw it going. After moving to Atlanta, I felt the Facebook page was a great way to stay in touch with the people in the original group, as well as a way to reach out to others all over the nation via the internet.

When you think of the future of the kind of work you’re doing with SCD Soldiers, what gives you a sense of hope?

There has been so many adults who suffer with SCD that feel as though they haven't been properly represented or served in a way that is beneficial. My mission of offering that kind of support makes me hopeful, because I know that if the services are established they will be utilzed.

Read the entire interview on Marie's Blog

Be sure to check out Phyllis's WEGO Health Profile and welcome her to the community!

Interested in learning more about Sickle Cell Disease?

Join the WEGO Health Group

Already active in the online Sickle Cell Disease Community?

Learn more about our upcoming Insight Groups!

Upcoming Insight Groups: Sickle Cell Disease Health Activists

We are holding online focus groups on Thursday, January 21st for people who are active contributors to online Sickle Cell Disease communities. These groups are being held on behalf of one of WEGO Health's Sponsors.

Focus groups will be held at 12 Noon Eastern Time, 4pm ET, 6pm ET and 9pm ET on Thursday, January 21st

Please note: These groups will take one hour and are held remotely. Participants can join from anywhere in the country, but will required to be online and on the phone at the same time.

All participants will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate.

We are looking for people who:

1) Have experience with Sickle Cell Disease
2) Stay current on news and treatment options for Sickle Cell Disease.
3) Are active contributors to online health communities.

Not sure if you’re an active contributor? We’re looking for people who participate in online discussion forums, question & answer sites, blogs, Twitter, etc.

If you are interested in joining us on Thursday, January 21st, the link below will take you to a short survey to see if the group might be appropriate for you:

Sickle Cell Disease Insight Group Survey

Announcing: WEGO Health Widgets!

We’re very excited to be introducing a new feature to our community today: the Featured Community Content Widget.

We’ve been working hard here at WEGO Health to create a series of widgets that feature high quality content created by Health Activists. Each widget focuses on a single topic and highlights user-generated content: summaries and direct links to the best discussions, blog posts, interviews, podcasts, and videos that are taking place across the web.

Take a look at our new Featured Fertility Community Content Widget:

To see more of the content featured in the widget, simply click that “more” button.

As you can see, some of the links and summaries featured by our editorial team are from the WEGO Health community. Most of this content, however, was created on – and still lives on - other sites.

Because our mission here at WEGO Health is all about empowering Health Activists (that’s you!) to help others, we link directly to your content in our Featured Community Content Widgets. Our goal is to make sure the great content you create gets exposed to as many people as possible.

We’ve tested this widget with members of the WEGO Health community and we’d like to take a minute to share some of their frequently asked questions (and the answers) with you:

How do I put this widget on my own site?

If you’d like to get regular updates about great content within your community, or share this widget with your blog readers or fellow community members, simply click on the “get widget” link at the bottom of the widget. From there, you’ll be able to copy the embed code, or begin the process of embedding the widget onto your dashboard, iGoogle, Blogger, or other widget-friendly sites.

How is content selected?

WEGO Health’s editorial team searches for the most helpful, interesting, Health Activist created content on the social web. This is an ongoing process, so if you’d like your content featured, or if you want to recommend content created by someone else, click on the “submit” link at the bottom of the widget to let us know!

Who owns the content in this widget?

The Health Activists who created it. WEGO Health believes very strongly that you own what you’ve created and we don’t want to infringe upon that.

How can I report an issue (eg. broken links, questionable content, etc.)?

Just send us an email describing the issue and we’ll look into it right away.

Why are there ads?

These ads pay for the widget to appear on many other websites and health social networks around the web – we're putting advertiser dollars to work, guaranteeing greater visibility for your content.

Can I suggest a topic for a new widget?

Of course! We’ll be introducing more widgets in the months to come, but if there’s a widget you think would be very beneficial to your community—please don’t hesitate to let us know by leaving a comment, or sending us an email.

We hope you’re as excited about this new WEGO Health feature as we are!

Jack Barrette Talks About Health Activists at the FDA Social Media Hearings

Last week, WEGO Health had the chance to present the findings of the Health Activists and Social Media survey to the FDA hearings on health care companies use of the Internet and social media tools.

After presenting on the first day, WEGO Health CEO Jack Barrette was interviewed by Russ Ward of Pixels and Pipes, a joint video blog by pharmaceutical marketing firms Palio and Zemoga. In the interview, Jack talks about Health Activists - "social media power users" - and what they want and expect from health care companies when it comes to social media.

Jack Barrette on Health Activism and the FDA Hearings from Zemoga on Vimeo.

Did you follow the FDA Social Media hearings? What are your thoughts on the role of the health care industry in online health discussions? How can the FDA help - or hurt - those conversations?