HealthFAQ is a personal initiative of its founder – Harbinder Singh Narula. He has spent almost two decades working on various projects related to internet services, mobile value added services and online healthcare, and one of the things common in almost all his professional stints has been the understanding of what the internet consumer wants and then creating content that is easily usable and accessible by the consumer.
When his son was born, he and his wife went through many frustrating instances of searching for reliable heath related information online because in most cases he did not know the authenticity of the information available nor its correctness. This resulted in his not being able to use the information that was available as search results.
He recently took a sabbatical after handing over his earlier entrepreneurial venture to his wife whi is a Dental Surgeon. While he spends time to evaluate consider new opportunities he has chosen to spend a part of his time on making available reliable, trustworthy and usable answers for peoples’ health related online search queries.
He has friends from the industry who take time out to advise him on how to take this forward and make it simpler for people to use HealthFAQ.
WHAT IS HEALTHFAQ?
HealthFAQ is working on a mission to provide trusted answers to people’s health related search queries on various search engines, from qualified medical experts, in a usable manner.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
There is so much of information overload on the web that it is becoming difficult to know the authenticity of the same. This is more so when it comes to a health related query, where the usefulness of the information depends upon the reliability and usability. These two things depend on whether or not the person providing this information is qualified to do so and is the information easily understandable and thus usable.
HOW IS THE INFORMATION USABLE?
The answers are recorded as video which helps in the following: (a) it is relatively easier to understand information when someone is speaking in a video compared to reading textual information and trying to comprehend the information (b) user is confident about the source of information as he / she can see the expert talking in the video (c) these videos are optimized to be watched on smartphones, so it is accessible on any smart device with internet connectivity and (d) it is in various languages and not restricted to English.
WHY SHOULD THE DOCTOR TAKE OUT TIME FOR PROVIDING THESE ANSWERS?
Firstly, it is a good thing to do. It is imperative for doctors to share their knowledge and spread awareness that allows people to live healthy lives and be conscious of any symptoms that are overseen because of ignorance. Secondly, people are able to relate to a doctor better once they have seen and heard him / her. This builds credibility for the doctor and helps in engaging with the online audience. Thirdly, such information sharing allows the doctor to save time as many of these questions are the ones which people ask the doctor on the phone.
HOW CAN PEOPLE USE THE VIDEOS PROVIDED AS ANSWERS?
The information provided in the video answer is not a prescription and is aimed at just providing awareness. As every body type is different and symptoms and nature of health condition could be many other parameters, it is advised that people must take any medical action only after visiting their doctor or medical expert. Information on HealthFAQ is helping them be aware of their body, health conditions and start living their lives consciously with motto being prevention is better than cure.