HealthUnlocked is a

social networking service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interest ...

for health. The company uses health-specific

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

to support patients to better manage their own health, by recommending relevant and tailored health content, information and services to patients The site enables

peer support Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters (although it can be provided by peers without training), and can ...

for various health conditions and promotes patient empowerment by actively engaging people with their

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

Communities

The social network hosts

online communities An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members engage in computer-mediated communication primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, on ...

within a dedicated health

web platform The Web platform is a collection of technologies developed as open standards by the World Wide Web Consortium and other standardization bodies such as the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group, the Unicode Consortium, the Internet Engi ...

. There are currently over 700 different health communities on the HealthUnlocked website, for a wide range of health and wellbeing conditions. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile and join one or more of these online communities. Many of the online communities are run in partnership with health organizations, non-profit organization's (NPO) and

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

worldwide, including Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), British Liver Trust, Endometriosis UK an
The Multiple Sclerosis Association Of America
Each month over 4M people from across the world come to the platform, the majority of which are from the UK and US. HealthUnlocked is in the top 20 private health websites globally according to

Alexa Internet Alexa Internet, Inc. was a web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco, California. It was founded as an independent company by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat in 1996. Alexa provided web traffic data, global rankings, and other info ...

. HealthUnlocked is also available through an app for

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

A study (2017) by

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

concluded that use of the HealthUnlocked platform positively affects a person's

Patient Activation Measure The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) is a commercial product which assesses an individual's knowledge, skill, and confidence for managing one's health and healthcare. Individuals who measure high on this assessment typically understand the importan ...

and research (

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, 2016) found use of platforms such as HealthUnlocked helps people to come together and cope with illnesses and diseases such as diabetes, cancer and mental health problems. The network was identified as a technology that will change health and care by the Kings Fund, a tech startup that is on track to become one of Britain's next billion dollar companies, and won an award in the Axa PPP Health Tech & You Awards (2017) while being named as a truly standout, disruptive innovation. HealthUnlocked was one of the first companies selected to join NHS England's
NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA)
programme, which aims to have proven innovations adopted faster and more systematically through the NHS, delivering on the commitment detailed within the

Five Year Forward View The Five Year Forward View was produced by NHS England in October 2014 under the leadership of Simon Stevens (civil servant), Simon Stevens as a planning document. Publication and reception It received praise for brevity, being only 39 pages, a ...

. HealthUnlocked works with organisations including

think tanks A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-gov ...

and the

pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry is a medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or self-administered by) patients for curing ...

to better understand long-term health conditions and to recruit people from its online health communities to surveys, advisory boards and panels, as well as

clinical trials Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

. An academic review into patient involvement in drug development found that social media and peer networks are evolving to play a much deeper role in innovation and clinical research in industry and changing opportunities for patients to participate in research and development of new therapies. A study into patients experiences on steroids taken from data on the health platform found that the timing of

glucocorticoid Glucocorticoids (or, less commonly, glucocorticosteroids) are a class of corticosteroids, which are a class of steroid hormones. Glucocorticoids are corticosteroids that bind to the glucocorticoid receptor that is present in almost every vertebra ...

administration varies significantly in

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by Health professional, healthcare professionals. The patient is most often Disease, ill or Major trauma, injured and in need of therapy, treatment by a physician, nurse, op ...

s, potentially influencing effectiveness and

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect of the use of a medicinal drug or other treatment, usually adverse but sometimes beneficial, that is unintended. Herbal and traditional medicines also have side effects. A drug or procedure usually use ...

s. The company has also worked with the

Institute for Public Policy Research The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is a Progressivism, progressive think tank based in London. It was founded in 1988 by Clive Hollick, Baron Hollick, Lord Hollick and John Eatwell, Baron Eatwell, Lord Eatwell, and is an independen ...

, surveying its users to better understand the attitudes and activities of people with long-term conditions.

Reception

HealthUnlocked was named one of "13 Startups in London You Should Know About" by Business Vibes as well as one of "London's 7 Fast-Growing & Disruptive Startups" by The Huffington Post. It was also named one of Business Cloud's 101 Top Healthtech Innovators, noted as one of Evening Standard's 5 best apps for mental health and also named in FT 1000's 3rd annual list of Europe's fastest-growing companies.

Validation

A research study which followed newly registered users to HealthUnlocked concluded that Patient activation seems to increase over time. Activation increased the most in those with very high engagement with HealthUnlocked and in those with low activation at baseline.

History

HealthUnlocked was founded in 2010 by Jorge Armanet (CEO) and Dr Matt Jameson Evans (Chief Medical Officer), to transform how information and data are used and treated in healthcare and support people with health conditions to connect together online. Jameson Evans, a doctor in the NHS, had previously been chairman of

Remedy UK Remedy UK was a pressure group representing junior doctors in the United Kingdom. The organisation was set up by four junior doctors in 2007 to campaign against UK government-led medical training reforms known as Modernising Medical Careers(MMC) ...

. Initially, the company focused on building self-reporting trackers for symptoms and treatment outcomes. The main HealthUnlocked website, was launched in 2011, focused on building

online support groups In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

in which patients can give each other insight about their conditions, in a way that healthcare professionals are not able to. Since this time, the site has grown exponentially with the number of conversations occurring increasing from 1.4 million in 2012, to 5.1 million in 2014. In 2015, HealthUnlocked was chosen as 1 of 17 successful entrepreneurs to join the NHS Innovation Accelerator, a scheme to give support to new technologies that could revolutionise healthcare for patients, hospitals and GP's. In July 2019 it formed a partnership with Patients Know Best, integrating its eSocial Prescription capability with their award-winning digital platform to enable more-holistic, personalised care plans in the form of a social prescription.

References

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External links

Official Website
British health websites Online support groups British social networking websites