Dear Salvatore,
I was so excited to read about The Cure on CNN, my fingers are almost trembling writing this message!
A couple of years back my sister was diagnosed with a Sarcoma (soft tissue cancer). One of the things we did, as most families do, is look to supplement the information we were getting from our doctors, with information online. The challenge as you have pointed out yourself in the article is that there are a number of forums to discuss and exchange information- thus critical information gets fragmented across the Internet. So I started thinking of a better way for victims of a disease (any disease) to tap into a network of expertise- other patients, doctors, researchers, etc. There were 2 pre-requisites to the idea and the site:
1. It had to be so simple that my old parents could learn to use it in a couple of minutes (most websites today are so cluttered with info that some of the people, especially the older ones who most need it, don’t benefit from it) and 2. It had to quickly help identify just the network of people you need efficiently (time is scarce when the clock is ticking!)
So I started working on Hudooku.com. We have put together a Beta site on a shoe string budget. Here is what the site does- quite simply- just enter what you are looking for using a search string- e.g. Breast cancer, second stage metastasis, age 45 and it will ‘match’ you with others looking for the same or similar topic- these could be fellow patients, a researcher looking for 2nd stage breast cancer patients, etc. You can also specify which geography you would like to get matched with- so e.g. if you want to meet fellow patients only in your country, you can do that as well.
We are also working on what we call the ‘Dooku’ button- this allows someone reading about cancer (or pretty much any topic) on Website A to be linked with someone reading about cancer on Website ‘B’ and so on. This button allows you to ‘Funnel-in’ readers of a similar topic who might be using multiple websites onto one common discussion platform.
We have just developed the site (the timing couldn’t be better!) and we would love your help to publicize it. I think it would be a great resource for many people. I certainly hope it helps improve and save lives.
Look forward to hearing from you.
—
Regards,
Narayan
www.hudooku.com
