Health Union
Jack Barrette, Chief Innovation Officer
jack.barrette@health-union.com
In June 2021, Health Union acquired WEGO Health with a vision to pioneer the most powerful force in social health. For more than a decade, each company independently created opportunities for people to engage online about their health in safe and meaningful ways. Now the companies are combining Health Union’s focus on curated content and community with WEGO Health’s legacy focus on patient leaders who provide a great deal of value to expand into almost every condition and inspire social interaction.
That has also led to the need to more clearly define “social health” as more than simply social media or a set of digital tools. Instead, it is a means by which social interactions meet relevant health connections to have a positive impact on health.
Patient feedback has been essential for confirming what Health Union has long known: social health plays a pivotal role in the patient journey. For example, a recent Health Union survey of people living with chronic health conditions found that 95% of respondents look to connect through various social resources to find answers about their own health experiences. And when people engage with social health, they feel more informed and empowered; specifically, 86% of respondents said they better understood their condition and 69% said they felt more informed about treatment options after engaging with social health.
Health Union’s success in providing the tools that allow social health to flourish has yielded increased interest among healthcare companies over the past year alone. Notably, Health Union has experienced client growth of 23% between 2020 and 2021, with the company’s footprint expanding to new clients as well as further within existing clients.
