Frequently
Asked Questions
How are we
different from WebMD, and other health-related websites?
What is the
“Health Profile” and why is it important?
How do I use
the type ahead drop down to enter conditions, medications, etc.?
Why does my
condition show up multiple times in the drop down list?
What are “tags”
and how do I use them?
How do I find
other members or allows others to find me?
The goal of our site is to help members connect to other
members who have, or have had, similar health issues. While WebMD,
and other sites, are good for looking up definitions of medications and
conditions, they do not allow members to easily connect to one another.
Also, on these other sites, you can post a question in a
forum and hope for an answer. The problem is that the only people looking at
that forum are in the same boat as you – they are currently looking for
information.
On our site, you can find members who have the answers you
are looking for. You can then connect to that member and ask them your
question(s) directly.
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In order to take full advantage of the powerful matching
features of our site, it is important to fill out your health profile with as
much detail as possible. Not only will this result in
more matches, but it will result in better matches.
The more members who fill out
their health profile, the better the site will be for everybody.
To enter this information is to
click on the "Edit Health Profile" on your "Home" page
(click on the blue "Home" tab in the upper left). On the
"wizard" that pops up, you can enter your conditions, symptoms,
medications, allergies, etc. If you want to enter information for a parent or
for a child, be sure to enter them under the "My Relationships" link
in the wizard so that they will appear as an option when entering conditions,
medications, etc.
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How do I use the type ahead drop down to enter conditions, medications,
etc.?
We have an extensive database of conditions, medications,
symptoms, treatments, facilities, etc. In order to assist members in the entry,
we have created a type ahead box. Once you enter three
characters, the drop down list is filtered to include only choices that reflect
those three characters. The matching characters will be in bold. You may enter more than three characters, but three is the
minimum necessary to filter the results.
Once the results appear, you must select the one you want by
clicking on it.
If no results are displayed, that means there are no matches
in our database. If entering a medication, try entering the name brand or
generic name instead. If you still can not find a match, please report it as a
missing item and we will add it to our database.
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Sometimes a condition will show up in the list under multiple categories. In
order to make the best matches, select all that apply.
For example, "rotator cuff injury" shows up under these three
categories:
Rotator Cuff Injury -> Musculoskeletal Disorders
Rotator Cuff Injury -> Wounds and Injuries
Rotator Cuff Injury of the Shoulder -> Sprains and Strains -> Back and
Spine -> Musculoskeletal Disorders
If you add all three of these to your health profile, you will have a better
chance of matching others with a rotator cuff injury.
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Tags are a way to categorize your Health Diary entries so that other members
can easily find them. If you are writing about melanoma, you may want to tag it
as "Cancer, Skin Cancer, Melanoma".
These tags will show up in the "Tag Cloud" on the right-hand side. A
larger font in the tag cloud means that there are more entries with that tag
than for one with a smaller font. Clicking on a tag will filter the results so
that you will only see entries that have the tag you clicked upon.
When you first write an entry, you may include tags at that time. You may
also "Edit Tags" for entries you have already entered.
Tags are also available for articles in the Health News area.
The use of tags make the site much easier to
navigate. However, tags are only useful if people use them. So please tag your
health diary entries and your articles - it will make the site better for
everyone.
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There are several ways to find other members with similar health
information.
Health Profile matches
Once you have entered information into your health profile, you can use two
links on your home page to match others with similar information in their
health profile. The first link is next to your avatar on the upper left of the
home page "Match My Profile". This will return a list of matching
members sorted with the best matches on top. The "Match Strength" is
a cumulative number of items matched and the strength of each item. The more
items you enter into your health profile, the higher this number might become.
The second link on the home page is "Automated Matches" loated in the "HealthMatch"
box. The number next to this is generated by a job that runs on a schedule and
shows now many members matched your profile at that point in time. Clicking on
this link will do the same thing as clicking on "Match My Profile" as
described above.
This is a very powerful search method, however you
must fill out your health profile in order to use it. This also assumes that
other members have also filled in their health profiles.
People Search
On your Home page (and on some other pages as well) you will see a search
box on the upper right with the options of "People | Messages | Web"
below it. People is the default and it will be in red.
Enter a word or phrase into the box and hit enter or click on the magnifying
glass icon. This will search through the Bios and Health Profile items of our
members looking for that word or phrase. There is no "Match Strength"
for this search. The word or phrase was either found or it wasn't.
This will also search for member names. For instance, if there was a member
named "VeganMegan", you could enter
"Megan" and find that member.
This search works best to find members who have filled in their health
profile and entered a bio. You may use this search without filling these out
for yourself, but if you want to be found, you should enter a bio and fill out
your health profile. Of course, this is always recommended.
Messages Search
On your Home page (and on some other pages as well) you will see a search
box on the upper right with the options of "People | Messages | Web"
below it. People is the default and it will be in
red. In order to switch to the Messages search, click on
"Messages". It will become red and "People" will become
blue. Type a word or phrase into the search box and hit enter or click on the
magnifying glass icon. This will search entries in the Health Diaries, Forums,
and Groups for the word or phrase and bring up any matching entries. There is
no "Match Strength" for this search.
In order to be found in this search, you must enter an entry in your Health
Diary and/or write a post in the forums or groups area.
Web Search
On your Home page (and on some other pages as well) you will see a search
box on the upper right with the options of "People | Messages | Web"
below it. People is the default and it will be in
red. In order to switch to the Web search, click on "Web".
It will become red and "People" will become blue. Type a word or
phrase into the search box and hit enter or click on the magnifying glass icon.
This will use a customized version of the Google search engine to bring back
matches from our filtered list of the best health-related sites on the web.
This should return better search results than if you were to do a Google search
yourself, since we have tried to filter out much of the "garbage" on
the web.
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