What role do communities play in WebMD's business strategy?

Members are "royalty" at WebMD. As the most widely recognized health and wellness content site on the web, we daily ask this question: Are we providing the health information and services our users need? This is what the public expects of us. And striving to achieve that goal with accurate, trustworthy content is what has forged the most trusted health brand on the Internet. By extending that brand to our sponsors, they reach more customers. This successful strategy is our bread and butter.

Message boards, chats, and live events are key ways to provide those services to our users, and to make sure that their unique questions are addressed. For National Lupus Day, for example, we scheduled a live event with an expert so our lupus members could invite friends and family to better understand this frustrating illness. Are a number of our newly pregnant members asking about hair dye and hot tub use during pregnancy? We make sure to bubble up our "Pregnancy Do's and Don'ts." Is the MS community discussing the difficulty of surviving the summer heat? We offer them content resources, and if necessary, book a live event.

We also work closely with our medical news department. After the national tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, we immediately booked experts on anxiety and fear, grief and loss, sleep disorders, PTSD, depression, and children's issues for our audience. On the first anniversary, we offered an entire day of live expert support in our chat room to help with lingering grief and anxiety. When the news on HRT and cancer surfaced this summer, we immediately scheduled live events with key women's health figures like Dr. Christine Northrup and Dr. Laura Corio, and created a message board for Dr. Corio to take questions around the clock. Many members were quite confused and frightened by the news, and were very grateful for the immediate assistance.

What are the biggest challenges you face? Does the fact that you deal with medical issues raise specific challenges?

Absolutely. WebMD voluntarily subscribes to HiEthics and Honcode, as well as TrustE, and believes completely in the sanctity of user privacy and going above and beyond the code of health ethics. Health professionals are carefully trained and monitored to provide healthcare information, not a diagnosis. We double-check all credentials and licenses. We do not allow anyone who is not contracted by WebMD to identify himself or herself as a health professional, so as not to confuse our membership.

Any sponsor-related material on the site is segregated and carefully labeled. We immediately remove any user posts that seem to be crossing the line into advertising or solicitation. This can be more difficult than it may seem. After all, our members are here to solicit information and find out what others like them have done to manage their conditions. It can sometimes be a fine line between posting about a product or a medical technique that has bettered their quality of life, and posting in a manner that is blatantly an advertisement. But as I said, our staffers are pros and carefully trained. We often discuss as a group what action to take, to assure consistency in moderation.

What have you tried that has worked well? Not worked as well?

Our WebMD Universities and Member Challenges have been very successful. WebMD Universities are four-week online courses that provide access to a major physician or author on a popular health or wellness topic. The course offers four weeks of online content, a message board, and weekly live events with the expert "headliner" and a variety of other related guest experts, a student lounge where members can come and visit with other course members like themselves, and a weekly newsletter reminder. We've tackled topics such as Allergies and Asthma (Breathe Free with Dr. William Berger); Pregnancy (during 2001-2002 we did four "Path to Motherhood" universities with Dr. John Sussman and Ann Douglas); A Healthy Heart (with Dr. Dean Ornish); and Living with Breast Cancer (with Dr. Marisa Weiss and author Jenny Nash).

Member Challenges have been much less formal. We did a New Year's Challenge last January that "dared" our members to take a four-week course on smoking cessation, weight control, and fitness. Several dozen members actually QUIT smoking! The challenge is archived on the board, and many others have succeeded with their goals since then.

Last spring we did a "Diet Double Dare," in which we brought in eight major diet gurus -- from Dr. Atkins to Dr. Dean Ornish, Sugar Busters to Weight Watchers -- and "dared" our members to read up on the diets, attend the live events with their questions, and peruse recipes and sample menus. We managed the challenge from our Food and Nutrition message board, using our contracted nutritionist to answer questions and clarify diet claims and recommendations. At the end of the series, we "double dared" the members to choose a diet they had researched and get started. We plan to reissue that challenge in spring of 2003.

As far as what hasn't worked well -- anything in that arena can be traced to not focusing on member needs. For instance, starting a message board on a topic that is not already being talked about -- that has a "buzz" in the community. Those will almost always flop. But spin off a pet board or a skin-care board when you find that folks are talking about those issues, and you've served your members. And that is what it is all about.

What excites you most as you look forward the next few years?

I could answer that question for hours! For instance, we now have new message board software with bigger and better "cool tools" for our message board members, and we plan to roll those out one by one in the near future. As you know, in community you must be careful with too much redecorating. Members don't like to come "home" and stumble over a new sofa or coffee table! It's best to introduce new features slowly, and with appreciation for the needs of your members.

I'm also excited about our plans for bigger and better live events. For example, during National Infertility Week in September, we partnered with RESOLVE, the national infertility association, to provide an all day "cyber conference" with major infertility experts. There was a chat room open from 10 a.m. to midnight, with ten infertility specialists available at various times to answer user questions on all aspects of fertility. During National Breast Cancer month (October), we have more than 35 guests available in two universities to answer questions on medications and coping techniques.

It's an exciting time to be in community. And I'm so thankful I'm here at WebMD to help that community grow and prosper!