Organizing the Web's most useful health resources is a major undertaking, however our goal is simple...to provide the best search service in the world for health by hand-crafting WisdomCards that physicians and consumers will recommend to their family and friends. Each WisdomCard is carefully created and reviewed by our team of expert guides and there is a lot of love and care that goes into creating each one which is why we are so proud of this accomplishment. 

We originally expected it to take a year to achieve this goal, but the success of our growing Guide Program has helped us create more than 10,000 WisdomCards much faster.  We're already working on the next 10,000 most searched health topics, as well as making dramatic improvements and ongoing updates to our rapidly growing WisodmCard Library.

Thanks to everyone of our Guides and Reviewers for working so tirelessly, carefully, and passionately...here's look at our current Top 50 most popular WisdomCards:

1. Pictures of Infant Rashes
2. Exercise
3. Running
4. Diabetes (Type 1)
5. Breast Cancer
6. Ovarian Cysts
7. Lyme Disease
8. STD Pictures
9. Asthma
10. Stroke
11. Breast Calcification
12. Syphilis Rash Pictures
13. Heart Disease
14. Pregnancy
15. Yoga
16. Avandia
17. MRSA Pictures
18. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
19. Skin Rash Identification
20. AIDS
21. Melanoma
22. Depression
23. Skill-Related Fitness
24. Home Treatment for Sebaceous Cyst
25. Abnormal Reactions to Mosquito Bites
26. Applebees Restaurant Nutrition
27. Cramps During Early Pregnancy
28. Celebrities with Autistic Children
29. Pictures of Gout
30. Acne
31. Blood Type Diet
32. Photos of Skin Cancer
33. Bruised and Swollen Top of Foot
34. Rosiglitazone
35. Foods That Act As Diuretics
36. Pros and Cons of Universal Health Care
37. Causes of Swelling in Feet and Hands
38. Famous People Who Died of AIDS
39. Diabetes (Type 2)
40. Spina Bifida Pictures
41. Biliary Dyskinesia
42. Sun Poisoning Rash
43. How to Reduce Swelling in the Foot
44. Shingles Rash Pictures
45. Herpes
46. Physical Stages of Dying
47. ADHD
48. Odds of Miscarriage After 8 Weeks
49. Eczema Rash Pictures
50. Autism

The video runs about 15 minutes and some of the topics we covered include:

* What is OrganizedWisdom?
* What's a wisdom card and how many cards are there today?
* Are you creating content or just showing search results?
* Plagiarism issues - this was running wild in another human powered search engine
* Do you allow the public to contribute?
* How do you compare to NY-based Hakia's health search and iMedix?
* What's the business model -- this is actually very interesting - I discuss a variety of components to the business plan unlike some of the other human powered search engines that are looking at advertising as their only revenue avenue
* What's the team like?
* How does someone become a guide and what qualifications are required?

How can we improve the quality of our service? And what can we do to make our content better, more useful, and more credible for our users?

And each week, we try to implement at least one innovation or improvement based on this feedback, the various suggestions from our users, and trends we glean from various usability tests and data analysis.

One area we've spent the most time working on is finding ways to improve the quality and credibility of each fact referenced on our WisdomCards.  Of course we already review each WisdomCard and link to useful and credible resources.  But we're making one major adjustment that we think adds a tremendous amount of credibility and transparency to the content on our WisdomCards: we've just unveiled (and our Guides are now hard at work at implementing across the OrganizedWisdom Library of over 10,000 WisdomCards) references, citations and footnotes to our WisdomCards.

This is a work in progress and will take some time to implement site wide, but you can see some examples on these WisdomCards:

• Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
• Pick's Disease Treatment
• Vitamin C

As always, thanks for your feedback and if you have other suggestions for how we can keep improving the quality of our service please let us know.

Chief Medical Officer

I just finished reading an article about “Wireless Philadelphia”, philadelphia’s quest for universal wifi to all its residents. The plans are to transform Philadelphia's neighborhoods by making high-speed internet access more available and affordable to all who live in the city.  The initiative is supposed to help people who are not online gain access with hardware, software, tech support/information, and broadband Internet service, so they can begin to use this technology to improve their educational, employment, health, and life opportunities.  Unfortunately, the project which has been in the making for over three years keep hitting snags.  This last snag was a big one…they ran out of money! Mayor Nutter (Philadelphia’s current Mayor) has pledged to try to revive this effort and I applaud him for this. Although the right to wifi is far from one of our god-given rights it can help improve countless lives through access to information. Being able to offer free or at least affordable high speed access to an entire city has huge implications on many levels.  This can lead to citywide changes from unemployment rates to increases in health and wellbeing. Certainly, one can’t argue that access to the internet can be not only empowering but life-changing.  Wouldn’t it be something if you could travel the entire country and never have to be without free internet access? Hopefully this won’t be as difficult to achieve as universal heathcare has been. It seems that although universal internet and universal healthcare are very different topics, the steps to successfully implementing either of these programs are the same.  First, we need to agree that this is a priority and set aside funds. Until the community (whether its a city or the country) agrees on the priority, chances are, it won't be accomplished.  So, Mayor Nutter, thanks for making this a priority! Now, what about universal healthcare for our city??

We call it "Going Green, Virtually."

That's right.  No office.  No commute.  No paper.  We don't require team members to punch a time clock. No spending wasted hours in traffic driving to work just to sit in a desk much farther away from one's home and family.

And as a result of Going Green Virtually, the benefits have been enormous. In fact, we believe it's one of our key ingredients to our rapid growth, dramatic increase in productivity, agile innovation cycles, and team member happiness.

Since we officially made this transition to Going Green Virtually over a year ago, we have debated the merits of our decision many times.  We've often asked, would we be more productive if we were all sitting in the same room everyday?  Would our team members be better off commuting to and fro? Would our ideas be better?  Would we attract better talent? Would we have more or less expenses? Would our business be more successful?  Would our product be better? Would we be more happy?

The answer to every question each time we assess our operations is simply, no.

The fact is, on the rare occasions when we do need an office, we still have access to great space and conference rooms because anytime (usually once a month) we can use one of our investor's offices. We use this space for strategic brainstorms, to white board in person, or to host investors or interview new team members.

We're not only proud to be building our company this way, but we believe that there are countless benefits to growing our company this way.  We see the way we are building OrganizedWisdom as the wave of the future in terms of how start-ups will be founded and great companies grown. And it's becoming clear that much larger companies are going to have to learn to operate this way too. For all of you entrepreneurs out there, here are 20 major benefits we've seen so far by Going Green Virtually.

1. Access to the world's very best talent pool: We can hire our team members from anywhere that has great Internet access.  This essentially means we can hire someone in the mountains, the woods, and cities and towns large and small.  This means we can hire globally. We are not confined by the city our main office is in to find the best talent.  We don't force people to relocate when they join our team. We don't have boundaries for where we can hire. We just work to hire the very best people, period.

2. Increased productivity: We don't waste time monitoring what time people come into an office.  Our technology, collaboration tools, and goals are designed to focus on productivity, not merely time spent. Our system gets better because it's not about how much time something takes, it is about how efficient and productive it is.

3. Metrics based goals: Because we are productivity focused, we are forced to make sure every goal is measurable.  When every goal is measurable, then chances are it is more clear what needs to be done.  This make it easier to keep your strategy and team focused on the goals that really drive the health of the business.

4. Less interruptions = less wasted time: Offices breed politics, disruptions, excess meetings, etc. We still have group chats in Campfire and on IM, but we've noticed many of the distractions that come with office life are replaced by things like being home when you kids get home from school or being able to make yourself lunch at home. Being virtual replaces the negative interruptions with meaningful interruptions.

5. No commute: This saves everyone of our team members probably at least 10 hours a week and lots of money on transportation, parking, and food costs.  People can use this time to spend with their family, get more rest, on hobbies, and even on being more productive.

6. Flex time: We let our team members work when they are most productive and set their own schedule. We monitor production, not a time clock. We trust our team members to do a great job and as a result they do an even better job.

7. Huge cost savings: There's huge cost savings for the company AND for our team members. They don't have to spend money on gas, tolls, parking, less car maintenance, food away from home, after school daycare, etc.  We don't have to spend money on expensive office space, chairs, desks, equipment, energy, and on and on. To us it's a no-brainer.

8. Rapid innovation cycles: Because we use collaboration technologies and new communications tools we are able to work in smaller teams and innovate more rapidly.  There is no big bureaucracy to slow us down. 

9. No more meetings:  We don't do meetings.  We publish goals and metrics.  We have an ongoing group chat. We build a team run knowledge base and community forums which get smarter with every input. We don't travel to meetings and take our team members away from doing what really matters: building a great service to help more people. We'd rather spend our time doing and less time talking about doing.  Again, because we are metrics focused, people already know what to do.

10. No searching for office space: For those of you entrepreneurs in San Fran or New York you know how much wasted time and energy goes into finding and setting up an office. Imagine never having to do this again. Imagine not ever growing out of your office space. Pretty great dream huh. It's a reality when you go green. It also enables us to focus on innovation rather than operations.

11. Ability to scale quickly: Because we depend on bits, not location, we can scale up or down instantly. This makes us nimble, efficient, and ready for growth and opportunities within minutes not months.

12. Diversity: Our team members come from all over. They live in the community we serve: all over the US. Often time, especially with media, Internet and content companies there's an unintentional bias influenced by the might of a city like New York or San Fran.  Growing up in Iowa, I know that often times the coasts just don't get it:-)  So we're happy we get to bake in a much more diverse perspective and cultural outlook into our product then that of one particular region.

13. Global operations: Again, because we are not constrained by a brick and mortar office, we can leverage resources from overseas whenever it makes sense.

14. Forced to learn new technology: We are an Internet and technology company.  By being forced to practice what we preach, we are early adopters at every turn.  This keeps us ahead of the pack and helps us keep finding new ways to save time, energy, money and increase productivity, quality, and team happiness.

15. Tap the power of part-timers: Lots of people don't want to or can't work full-time jobs, but they have an interest and passion in working part-time.  We get to work with these people too.

16. A 24 hour work cycle: The web is open 24 hours a day and so are we. We don't have the same constraints because our team members are in multiple time zones already.

17. More time with friends and family: One of the best advantages to building this type of business is the ability to be there for your friends and family more.

18. Happier employees: Because our team members don't have to commute, relocate, waste time on the train, can work when they are most productive, and can spend more time with their families, we have happier employees.  Happier employees = more loyal and productive team members.

19. We're Going Green Virtually! We're trying to do our part to help the environment and our team members anyway we can. People don't have to buy gas, we don't use paper, and we don't have a big office to waste energy on.Let's get thousands of companies to do this!

20. Share your thoughts: If you've gone green already please post your feedback on what's worked (or hasn't worked)...

Technology has truly changed everything over the past few years.  We feel blessed that we get the opportunity to build our business this way, and proud to share our wisdom as we grow and evolve.

We hope you'll consider Going Green Virtually soon too.

(Here's a link to our careers page at OrganizedWisdom.  We're always looking for the best team members to join us).

We were going to put together a formal press release announcing our recent round of funding in a few weeks but yesterday the news was "uncovered" by PEHub, which found our Form D regulatory filing.

The top blogs didn't miss a second.  Already, there's a write-up in the all-important TechCrunch as well as PaidContent who both got the story from the get-go. Many others are contacting us for more in-depth insight and details.

There's a lot more exciting news to announce, so we'll be posting more specifics soon.  We also plan to highlight the amazing investor group backing OrganizedWisdom, and we'd like to more formally introduce our team, as well as share more details about some of the exciting developments taking shape with what we are building.

As always, please send us your feedback and suggestions.  Thanks again for all of your support as we work on a big mission to organize the world's most useful health wisdom.

Here are links to some of the recent posts:

TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/19/organizedwisdom-the-mahalo-for-health-raises-23-million/

PaidContent: http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-health-searcher-organized-wisdom-raises-23-million-first-round

Silicon Alley Insider: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/new_york_firms_raise_over_4_million

MediaPost: http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=85461&Nid=44285&p=376200

VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/20/organizedwisdom-health-raises-23m-for-doctor-guided-health-search/

Private Equity Hub: http://www.pehub.com/article/articledetail.php?articlepostid=12823

As a new feature on this blog, Dr. Krein will be writing regular commentaries about how we can continue to leverage new media, ideas and technology to improve patient experience and change the health care system for the better.

------

Now, What questions do you have for me?

Seems like a direct enough question. Seems to be open ended, seems unbiased, right?

I always thought that this simple question was all I needed to say to allow my patients to gather their thoughts and ask me anything they want. Give them ample opportunity to understand the information that I presented and that will be so important in their heath and wellbeing. Its funny how time and experience can change the things you were once certain of.

I was taught many things throughout my 10 years of medical training.  I know how to collect information, how to do a history and physical, how to interpret data. I can look at a wound and know if it is doing well or not. I can take a person's face that has been ravaged by cancer or by a trauma and make it whole again. What I find increasingly difficult to do is make sure my patients have and understand all of the pertinent information they need to consistently make the right healthcare decisions. 

As the costs for medicine rise (both for the physician and patient) and insurance companies put pressure on healthcare practitioners to see more patients during each day to make ends meet, the amount of quality time I get to spend with a given patient decreases. It is a simple formula: the number of hours in a day is consistent, and if I now need to see twice as many patients in my office to make enough money to keep the lights on, then the number of “minutes” I get to spend with each patient drops.  This is where I have a problem. The choice that I am forced to make is either to spend more time with each patient then I have allotted for them or just stick to my schedule and leave the patient to figure things out for themselves.  For me the choice is simple, I spend whatever time each patient needs to understand what they are dealing with. This unfortunately routinely puts me behind in the office and so every subsequent patient has to wait a little extra. If three or four patients need extra time during a given day, my schedule is shot! For many patients this extra waiting period adds to their dissatisfaction with the current medical system.  Add the extra wait to see a healthcare provider with the frustration of  high cost  and decreased accessibility and no wonder healthcare it at the top our political agenda.

So where do we go from here? How do we arm patients with more information to better understand their health? How do we provide patients the tools to get more out of their healthcare visits?  How do we as caretakers ensure that our patients, our friends and our families are getting the most out of what is available both in and outside of our offices?

We have entered into a new age of medicine. An age where complex information is available to all in an instant.  An age where the knowledge of individuals, experts,  and even the masses are all within a few clicks of a mouse.

Access to health information has never been easier.  Discerning quality health information, however, has never been more difficult. How do we leverage the power of our technology to help our healthcare system take better care of our patients and protect them at the same time?

I think it starts by healthcare providers taking a look at what information and technology is out there and understanding it better.  Rather than be threatened by this “new age” of medicine, there is an opportunity to embrace it.  And by doing so, help develop the resources and technology that are growing and will inevitably be a part of your practice.  Support patient interaction with quality sites and information.  Support the change and development of insurance regulations that limit the way we interact with patients.

After a recent Wall Street Journal article which highlighted some of the changes that are bound to take place in medicine, a physician referred to this technology as non-viable. I assure you, the changes that are taking place in how our patients access healthcare and health information is not only viable, it is both the present and future of medicine. Instead of resisting this “wave” or sitting by on the sidelines waiting to see where it goes, catch the wave and take a ride.  Help others understand the importance of this movement and the potential it has to improve all aspects of healthcare.

Although I’ll never stop asking my patients “Now, What questions do you have for me?”, I know that with our help, patients will be able to get quality, accurate answers to their questions anytime of the day or night…..

Manny Hernandez, the founder of TuDiabetes.com, is an inspiring and active member of multiple online communities and who tirelessly shares his wisdom and shares his experience to help more people.  Indicative of his passion to share far and wide, Manny has also been an active guide on OrganizedWisdom for over a year helping recommend useful links and help build WisdomCards.  Imagine having one of the most experienced diabetes advocates in the world guide you to the best resources on a topic like Insulin Pumps.  Thanks to his efforts, and hundreds of other guides, advocates, doctors, and health experts like him who contribute to build WisdomCards, now you can. Here's his WisdomCard on Insulin Pump, something he knows a lot about.

Here is a video from Manny explaining why he founded TuDiabetes.com and it's well worth the time to watch.  It's this type of passion and dedication from people like Manny who inspire us everyday, and one of the reasons we launched OrganizedWisdom in the first place.  We couldn't be more proud to be working with the TuDiabetes.com community and to have Manny share his wisdom. There's no doubt this will help even more people and together we can make a lot of progress in health care.

Find more videos like this on Tu Diabetes - A Community for People Touched by Diabetes

Click here to find out how you can embed WisdomCards on your Website.

We've already been working with several health sites, hospital portals and health foundations to make our WisdomCards easily accessible from their Web sites, but now anyone can easily link to a WisdomCard or feature our WisdomCard Library on their own blog, health site or social networking profile.

These badges and widgets only take a few seconds to embed.  They are as easy to upload as popping up a YouTube video.  And if you want a co-branded version all you have to do is send us your logo and domain name and we will add co-branding to the WisdomCards so they also feature your logo.

Here are some examples of the badges, but check this page for a complete list and to grab the code for your site today.

Check here for additional options and sizes.

OrganizedWisdom is taking off and we're looking for the best talent to help us build the world's most useful search service for health.

We're building out our team and infrastructure in a big way and the most important thing to us is working with A-player talent who want to do great things.

We'll keep updating our career page here, but if you are a superstar PHP Developer or Web designer that wants to help a lot of people, have fun and do exciting work, then check out the requirements below and get in touch with me right away...

Web Designer Wanted...

If you have a passion for improving the user experience of a site that will help a lot of people, then we want you on our team. We're looking to work with the very best Web designers in the world. Join a team of dedicated, smart, ambitious, and fun people. Best of all, you can work from most anywhere, although we are based in New York City.

Qualifications and Experience:

• - 5+ years experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, cross-browser development
• - Familiarity with Subversion and trac
• - Knowledge of PHP, MediaWiki, or CSS for the iPhone a major plus
• - Expertise in information architecture, simplifying user experience, and clean/elegant design
• - Love start-up environment and growth companies that innovate fast

Interested? Send your resume/CV and cover letter to careers @ organizedwisdom . com with "Web Designer" in the subject line.

Senior PHP Developer Wanted...

We're looking for superstar PHP developers and want to help build the most useful health search service on the Web.

If you have a passion for building technologies that will help a lot of people, then we want you on our team. We're looking to work with the very best developers in the world. Join a team of dedicated, smart, ambitious, and fun people.

Qualifications and Experience:

• - Extensive LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) experience
• - Familiarity with Subversion and trac
• - MediaWiki, HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript and cross-browser compatibility experience a plus
• - Love start-up environment and growth companies that innovate fast

Interested? Send your resume/CV and cover letter to careers @ organizedwisdom . com with "Senior PHP Developer" in the subject line.