Trusera's health social network launches today, and many that check out the new site may wonder how Trusera is different from most other health-related communities out there, such as DailyStrength and RevolutionHealth. It was the first question that came to my mind, so I asked Trusera founder Keith Schorsch about some of the site's differentiating factors.
For one, Trusera addresses the whole person. What's that actually mean? It means that Trusera doesn't organize its users according to health issues or diseases. This type of delineation amongst users tends to group them in ways that may not take into account some of the other issues that may be going on with particular users. Personally, I also feel that it limits the privacy capabilities of a health network.
Trusera organizes users according to keywords and tags instead of direct categories, so users can still find each other. A matchmaking feature enables Trusera to help you out towards this end, giving you an easier way to find related stories, support, and more. Having spent five years at Amazon, heavily involved with product recommendations, Schorsch has applied this experience to Trusera's match tool. If you check out the personal dashboard upon signing in (after becoming active), you'll notice some recommendation features that are somewhat similar to Amazon.
So what happens when users actually connect on Trusera? They share, or simply reach each other's content. I was surprised to learn that Trusera doesn't support anonymous content, given the sensitive nature of things people may be discussing on a health network. Schorsch insisted that the inability to post content anonymously increased the credibility of user-generated content, which is also important for user-generated health networks. This will work better for some users than others, as some anonymity can provide a forum for more honesty regarding sensitive topics.