The Online Health Community Model: Role and Importance in Marketing Research

Recognizing the growing role of patients and caregivers in healthcare decisions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are looking for ways to easily and accurately infuse the voice of the patient and caregiver into strategic marketing decisions. The need to do so quickly, efficiently and accurately, particularly with hard-to-reach patients, creates a need for online patient communities. However, the approaches and philosophies behind these communities can vary greatly.

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Health Union Announces Acceptance to Present at NCCN Annual Conference 2019

Results from the qualitative analysis demonstrate that people with cancer are broadly misinformed about the benefits of palliative care and have some confusion around the timing and components of hospice care.

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Health Union Announces Multiple Poster Presentations at the 40th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine

Research from Health Union’s Chief Community Officer Amrita Bhowmick, MPH, MBA, and Executive Director of Community Development Sara Hayes, MPH, and co-authors will be shared at the 40th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM). The poster sessions featuring research from two of Health Union’s online health communities, Migraine.com and LungCancer.net, will be presented at the conference, which takes place on March 6-9, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

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Content Strategy in Online Communities: Going Beyond Content

Content strategy is a key component of Health Union’s approach to community development. Hear first-hand from the people who are immersed in our communities and why Health Union’s approach works through this Q&A with Brian M. Green, Executive Director of Community Development.

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Social Media Engagement: Proof that quality leads to quantity

Engagement is a key component of Health Union’s approach to community development. Hear first-hand from the people who are immersed in our communities and why Health Union’s approach works through this Q&A with Rebecca Braglio, Senior Director of Community Development.

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Moderation: An online health community tool for understanding, not just responding

Moderation is a key component of Health Union’s approach to community development. Hear first-hand from the people who are immersed in our communities and why Health Union’s approach works through this Q&A with Kristine Zerkowski, Vice President of Community Development.

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Committed to the Public Health Sector: A New Year’s Resolution We Can Keep

While our office is wrapping up the end of the year, celebrating our accomplishments and the relationships we’ve built with one another, we’re spending a lot of time crunching numbers to quantify the kind of impact we’ve made this year as a business.

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Five Simple Ways to Improve Clinical Trial Recruitment

Health Union often partners with study sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) to supplement clinical trial recruitment efforts. Based on this experience, here are five simple suggestions for CROs to help guide patients from the point at which they express interest in a study through to completion.

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The Patient and Caregiver Journeys are Interconnected: Addressing caregivers’ needs can make both experiences better

Day in and day out, we observe how a chronic condition or cancer diagnosis not only impacts the patient but their loved ones, as well. The comments and conversation reveal the ripple effect that occurs, and how the diagnosis impacts everyone in the family–often times it can feel as though they have received the diagnosis themselves. Caregivers step forward in recognition of their loved one’s need for care, compassion and support.

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Forgetfulness and confusion: Hidden complications of treating T2D

Living with type 2 diabetes can be a lot to handle, involving many medications, drastic lifestyle changes like dietary restrictions and constant monitoring of blood glucose. Health Union’s “Type 2 Diabetes In America 2018” survey revealed that forgetfulness and uncertainty may play a bigger role in a person’s ability to manage their condition than often considered.

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