The HealthMakers 250 Video Series Launch

Sharecare’s new HealthMakers 250 video channel features fascinating health experts talking about the big questions of health. Watch Drs. Mehmet Oz, Andrew Weil, David Agus, Francis Collins, Michael Roizen, Dean Ornish, Deepak Chopra, Leslie Saxon and others discuss everything from the future of healthcare and the war against cancer to why it’s so challenging to eat right. Watch the HealthMakers here.

“Sharecare Is Facebook with Health Info”

As more and more U.S. adults look for health information and guidance online (59 percent within the last year, according to a recent report), Sharecare.com is rising to the occasion with new offerings. Mashable.com recently interviewed Sharecare founders Jeff Arnold and Mehmet Oz, MD about Sharecare’s mission. Read the article about Sharecare here.

The addition of these prestigious health systems advances our mission to provide consumers with quality, actionable health information and connect them with local healthcare providers. In fact, the new partners have already answered more than 500 health questions on Sharecare.com from How can I decrease the chance of medication errors? to What is an abnormal heart valve?

“Our priority is to partner with respected health systems from across the country that influence the conversation in healthcare so that the millions of consumers on Sharecare can become better-informed and empowered to make transformative changes for a healthier lifestyle,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president of hospital markets at Sharecare.

Sharecare’s social question and answer platform is designed to simplify the search for health information and providers online. As consumers get answers to their health questions, they can also learn more about the providers and connect with them on the providers’ profile pages.

We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with our new partners, and we invite you to visit their profile pages and start getting to know them today.

To Your Health,

Jeff

Join the largest health conversation in 140 characters or less! Tweet what you want to talk about to @SharecareNow and let’s start chatting!

The partnership between HealthyWomen and Sharecare provides women from across the country with access to HealthyWomen’s network of more than 250 medical experts. These health and wellness experts can offer credible knowledge and advice on a variety of women’s health topics from pregnancy and parenting to caregiving and midlife. HealthyWomen also joins Sharecare in an effort to raise public awareness of serious health conditions, such as the effects of obesity on a woman’s health and that of her family.

“Our partnership with Sharecare is a perfect fit for HealthyWomen,” said Beth Battaglino, RN, executive director of HealthyWomen. “Sharecare’s unique platform of providing answers to consumers’ most pressing health questions aligns with HealthyWomen’s strategic mission and is a natural extension for us in providing women with quality, medically-vetted health news and information.”

The ever-increasing role of the Internet as a source for health and wellness information highlights the need for credible, trusted health and wellness information online. In the United States alone, research has shown that women make 90 percent of health care decisions[i] and 9 out of 10 women seek health information online.[ii] The new partnership with Sharecare will extend HealthyWomen’s reach online and help educate even more women about their health to enable them to make informed and empowered decisions for themselves and their loved ones.

“HealthyWomen will add significant value to the Sharecare platform by empowering women with the right tools to learn more about their health and connect with credible resources that will help them take the appropriate action to live their healthiest lives,” said Donna Hill Howes, RN, MS, senior vice president of Sharecare.

Visit the HealthyWomen page on Sharecare.com at: http://www.sharecare.com/group/healthywomen.

For more information, click here.

This year’s National Physicians Survey provides valuable insight into the frustrations and opportunities of the day-to-day management of practices, administration tools doctors use and how communication with both colleagues and patients is evolving. Arming doctors with innovative solutions to ease administrative burdens is a top priority for the healthcare industry.

“Physicians today are practicing in a healthcare environment that they never could have predicted much less prepared for,” says Keith Steward, MD, senior vice president of medical affairs at Sharecare. “Doctors need to get back to what they were trained to do—provide their patients with the best care possible.”

For access to a downloadable infographic with more results from the survey, please visit here.

To your health,

Jeff

Launched in 2010 and based in Atlanta, Sharecare is an interactive, social Q & A platform that allows people to ask, learn and act upon questions of health and wellness. Sharecare’s dynamic social technology platform, together with RealAge’s, rich, high quality health content and extensive user base, will fuel a powerhouse of highly customized and personalized content and tools to engage and connect consumers, patients, doctors, experts and healthcare professionals, securing Sharecare’s leadership position in the emerging health and wellness social media market. Over 29 million consumers have taken the patented RealAge Test®, which uses a powerful algorithm combining the latest evidence-based scientific research with lifestyle habits and medical history to determine an individual’s “RealAge” – a unique calculation of your body’s health age.

The RealAge Test® will become an embedded part of Sharecare’s site registration and, through Sharecare’s social platform reach, will enable the delivery of highly personalized and relevant health content and action plans, leveraging RealAge’s vast knowledge and insights about consumer health behavior, to consumers via multiple touch points, including their Sharecare profile page, mobile devices and email. Additionally, combining RealAge with Sharecare’s interactive community of health experts and caregivers – ranging from leading hospitals to prestigious organizations, to personal trainers to over 400,000 physicians from The Little Blue Book’s physician reference database – will create new opportunities to connect consumers to both national healthcare experts and local physicians to better address their specific health issues and needs.

The acquisition will propel Sharecare and RealAge collectively to become a top 10 most visited online health property according to comScore. This union – which includes the Emmy® Award-winning TV show “The Dr. Oz Show” website, www.doctoroz.com – creates a powerful and unique platform for healthcare organizations to effectively reach and provide relevant and highly targeted content to a diverse group of health information seekers.

“This acquisition represents another strategic step that advances our business model and provides consumers with the tools, the social network and the motivation to accelerate their efforts to positively transform their lives,” said Jeff Arnold, Chairman and CEO of Sharecare. “By integrating the personalized analytics of RealAge into Sharecare’s expert social platform, individuals can now determine exactly what they can do to improve their health at a faster rate, and find the motivation and online community to help them do it.  Additionally, we believe the continued adoption of RealAge as the universal metric for measuring an individual’s health progress will help put more accountability into healthcare and enable us to track our collective impact in ultimately reducing chronic disease.”

“We are proud of how RealAge has evolved over the years into one of the most trusted and motivational online healthcare destinations,” said Sassa. “We are excited to join the other prestigious media organizations who are shareholders in Sharecare including Dr. Oz, Harpo Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications. We believe in Sharecare’s vision of providing trusted information, actionable evidence-based programs and online support for healthcare consumers and providers.”

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Additionally, Sharecare also acquired The Little Blue Book (TLBB) from Galen Partners and a group of other investors in exchange for Sharecare common stock. TLBB has been the leading physician practice reference for over 23 years with over 400,000 physicians and 180,000 physician practices in TLBB’s database. People will soon be able to access TLBB’s physician practice information on Sharecare in order to locate physicians, practices, and hospitals in their area, as well as make informed decisions about which caregiver can best address their specific health issues and needs. Sharecare plans to quickly migrate TLBB’s physicians to its digital platform, providing each physician access to Sharecare’s suite of provider-focused products to enhance their practices, such as digital business cards, lead generation and search optimization tools and access to SharecarePro, Sharecare’s upcoming expert membership product.

The company’s Board of Directors also announced that the Chairman and Chief Architect of Sharecare, Jeff Arnold, will formally expand his role as CEO to steward the continued growth and success of the company. As part of the transaction, David Jahns, Managing Partner of Galen Partners, will join Sharecare’s Board of Directors.

“We are very proud of the progress we’ve made this past year in building an online health and wellness ecosystem by providing trusted information, actionable evidence-based programs and online support and tools for healthcare consumers and providers,” said Jeff Arnold, Chairman and CEO of Sharecare. “I’m excited to serve as CEO of the company and to welcome Galen Partners and TomorrowVentures to our prestigious group of shareholders and industry partners. Galen’s knowledge of, and reputation in, the healthcare industry make them an ideal partner for innovation and growth.”

“The founding partners and group of industry leaders involved in Sharecare have built a transformative platform with significant momentum. We believe that Sharecare’s vision of enabling online industry collaboration by leveraging new technologies to improve communication and care while reducing cost and improving outcomes will have a measurable impact on our healthcare system,” said David Jahns. “We look forward to collaborating with the team to help shape the future of health and wellness delivery.”

You can find the entire press release here.

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