Revolutionhealth.com

Note, I am posting this in the Security blog because medical care is obviously an important aspect of living a secure life and also because this site is likely to be collecting a LOT of confidential information about individuals, making it a security concern.

A new medical information site made it’s TV debut this morning and, since I already offer free medical research certified by HON, an affiliate of the U.N.’s WHO, I immediately went to check it out so I could decide whether to recommend it on helpdotcom.com.

Revolutionhealth.com was established by Steve Case, one of the founders of AOL, but don’t hold that against him (GRIN), it is a great idea, one which I have tried to get off the ground myself on a local basis.

It never seemed fair to me that you could find consumer ratings of ebay vendors and fast food joints, but not of doctors or hospitals.

Heck, nearly 100,000 people each year die of hospital-acquired infections but have you ever tried to obtain the mortality or infection rates for your local hospital?

This new site will allow consumers to post ratings, as well as providing lots of “official” medical information from various top U.S. schools (some of which I have worked with myself.)

To test out the site I initially registered, then returned later to post a review.

This was easy and the only way to really judge this site will be to go back in a month or two and see whether it is really obtaining an honest and useful database of consumer ratings.

Initially there are some problems with the site which is still obviously in the testing stage (but not marked as a “beta” site.)

First I found that the site reports the Punxsutawney Hospital is 11 miles from Punxsutawney – which is only 11 miles off. That is important because if you search for hospitals within 5 miles of Punxsutawney, you don’t get any results. The hospital is easily within the municipal limits.

Second, I have some questions about site security. These will only be answered in time but I wanted to let TR members know about this potentially important new site ASAP.

I am neither endorsing or criticizing this site, it has great potential and everyone with any concerns about medical care needs to monitor it’s progress.

Obviously it is also important for companies and I urge the site to add ratings for HMOs and other insurance plans.