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People will ask questions about a disease or symptom they have; someone who has the same health problem can share their experience on how they mitigated or cured it.
I want to know if you think this offers enough value for people, or is a bad idea that will result in fail. Please explain your reasoning.
I can't really offer an opinion of success/failure, but the idea makes me highly uncomfortable. As is, self-misdiagnosis is high, with untrained people flocking towards "popular"/well-known diseases that "kind of fits" their symptoms, or finding out about a disease they hadn't previously known about that sounds "just like" what they have, or just chasing zebras. With a community encouraging and amplifying this effect…
http://www.healthboards.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=58
It doesnt mean it cant be a startup, but things like it do exist. If you make something you will need to create a spin.
I thought webmd did this but the discussions are buried many layers deep.
Not to be a Debbie downer, but Im curious as to how you could indicate when a symptom is serious enough to warrant real help. Unless you try a Quora style system (only allowing doctor rs to respond)
Existing websites that are open to the public (as opposed to answered by a medical practitioner) are full of spam. So you would need to monitor it carefully.
But I don't think that there is some added danger that people will not seek real medical assistance. To the contrary, they may find that something that they would normally wait to go away actually requires early medical assistance. Plus, most people already do ask around when it is something they can talk about. All you would do is to put that discussion online.