SOCIAL NETWORK COLLABORATION TO HELP CURE CANCER–FORBES MAGAZINE

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Jeffrey Newman

There is a small but worthwhile commentary piece in Forbes today entitled COULD COLLABORATION CURE CANCER? The focus of this piece relates to issues I have talked about in this site for a while and for which I believe there is significant potential for the treatment and management of many chronic diseases including neurological disorders. The central concept is the creative and assertive use of social media and other sites for the purpose of collaboration and communication among researchers, physicians and others towards new and more effective therapeutics. The “movement” in this regard is in its infancy by I predict a malthusian growth pattern based in part on early successes driven by the free market system. The Forbes article highlights sites such as Sermo.Inc on which over 120,000 member physicians collaborate with others on a confidential basis about their views on effective drugs, clinical issues, medical devices and more. It mentions the new partnership models for pharma companies, supported by web based collaboration and research. In this blog, I have highlighted the benefits of data mining the web to speed and spread information about new therapeutics into the labs and to the researchers in order to speed the present serendipity of drug development. Many effective drugs are found by mistake or happenstance as a secondary bi-product of an approved use. This needs to be systematized so disease sufferers find help now. I llike the fact that the issue is finding its way into WIRED and FORBES as it might come to the eyes of VC investors and hedge funds. The concepts are the future and now for me, an obsession.