Tuesday, January 6, 2009

RareShare: A Community Site Doing Nothing But Good

Have you heard of Rareshare? This social community is designed to help sufferers of rare diseases connect with one another and share stories and ideas about their conditions.

Over 700 conditions are listed here, with a community for each. What sorts of conditions? Well, Metachromatic Leukodystrophy for a start. This community has but one member at the moment, so if you've got it, why not join and support one another?

I absolutely love this idea because having people who KNOW as a support group can be tremendously valuable. While all sorts of support are enormously valuable, support of "afflicted" peers can be especially desirable.

Not all of these communities are populated yet, but those that are have rich personal thoughts and ideas, in addition to advice and experiences that can be of enormous value to a person working to overcome a condition.

No information on the site about marketing opportunities, but it seems a prime venue for a pharma outfit to do a CSR buy or for specific brands to be supported in relevant communities. You don't need to worry about tonality here -- these people are here to lick their problems, not wallow in them.

I salute the creators of this community, which is clearly meeting a heretofore untapped need. And, indeed, changing the lives of people experiencing these conditions.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

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