This was posted at another HU forum today. I'm not going to speculate on any "good news - bad news" story herein. Here is what was posted by one of that forum's admins:
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Dear Community Members,
HealthUnlocked have just made an announcement regarding changing ownership. They are now a part of the US company Corrona corrona.org and will be working alongside HealthiVibe, healthivibe.com , a subsidiary of Corrona.
The reassuring message is that HealthUnlocked remains dedicated to providing a safe, supportive and free of charge space for all HU communities and they want to safeguard that mission.
They have put 10 years of work into developing the world's largest online support network and it's big change for the HU team.
HU is continuing to work on improvements to the platform, one of them being an option to add images to replies. They are very committed and they care about what we do and how much this platform and our communities mean to us.
An opportunity for community admins to ask questions about the implications of the change of ownership has been provided by HU, so I expect there will be a summary Q&A response provided soon, which I'll add to this post if there is not a general announcement.
Here is the change of ownership announcement from HealthUnlocked's Director of Community Operations:
Thank you for all the time and dedication you have put into your communities on HealthUnlocked over the last 10 years. The efforts of admins and patient advocacy groups are what makes HealthUnlocked the safe and supportive space it is today, helping the 1.3 million members who have found a space to share their health experiences and connect with others on a personal level.
As an integral part of the platform, we wanted to let you know about the good news that HealthUnlocked has just been acquired by Corrona, a collaborative registry that captures real patient data to support research into better understanding patient journeys, impacts of treatment and quality of life issues. We will be working side by side with their patient experience unit, HealthiVibe.
It is exciting news! Maintaining HealthUnlocked as a sustainable platform, free of charge to all our members and patient advocacy groups, has been our highest priority. We believe being part of the Corrona group will allow us to safeguard this priority and amplify our mission of helping people better manage their health in a holistic way.
Further communications will be coming as soon as we have more details. For now, we can say that working with Corrona and HealthiVibe will enable greater opportunities to be part of a wider scientific network, to engage with significant healthcare research and have people’s voices heard in the health areas that matter most to them.
In the short term, you will not notice any changes and the platform will remain the same as it always has been. Our name, patient-centric vision, and us - The HealthUnlocked team behind the scenes - will be unaltered. People’s online safety and privacy will continue to be safeguarded with the utmost care. Longer term, any changes that come into place will be communicated clearly and promptly and should bring positive changes for the community members.
We understand this is a big, and maybe unexpected, piece of news, so please do reach if you have any questions.
Thanks again for everything you do. We are immensely grateful for every single one of you.
Pepa Gonzalez
Director of Community Operations
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Most concerning to this poster is this from the Healthvibe.com subsidiary mentioned in the HU release quoted above:
HealthiVibe uses a systematic, evidence-based process to help pharmaceutical clients spearhead patient engagement initiatives at every stage of the product lifecycle. We leverage innovative, co-creation models and global online analytic platforms to provide our clients the tools and the expertise to gather, analyze and apply deep patient insights to optimize clinical trials and enhance overall product commercialization efforts.
As I surmised when the Google analytics cookie messages showed up at login, we are being data-mined by the medical industry. Question remains: Is that for our benefit or theirs?
Comments would be welcomed. Stay Well - cujoe
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