Healthcare social media has a new player in a two-year-old startup that’s just raised $5 million in venture capital and launched an online community specifically for physical therapists.
Therapydia was created to connect physical therapists, facilitate the exchange of ideas and mobilize PT around key issues like reimbursement and direct access. PTs fill out a profile on the site and then can add blog posts and earn reward badges for being active on the site.
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One feature aggregates content from more than 300 news sites, journals and blogs. A Social Pulse feature combs through the Web (the member’s social media accounts, blog and reviews on Yelp and Healthgrades) to generate a score that’s indicative of a PT’s online visibility and brand, and then offers resources for improving them. The Promote PT section of the site lets members engage in conversation about policy issues.
Therapydia’s founder, Ben Dehan, has some experience building and exiting a social site. He was the founder and former CEO of Foodbuzz, a food blog community that was acquired by Federated Media in 2010. That experience may have helped Therapydia in raising its $5 million series A this summer from Peterson Ventures, de Anda Capital and Western Technology Investment.
A company rep said the business model was still being developed. Eventually, the company says, the site will expand to include patients, referring physicians and related wellness practitioners. Incorporating others into the network would be a key move for the company, as doing so would likely provide more direct benefit to users by opening the door for potential referrals and patient engagement.
The launch comes on the heels of the news last week that physician social media network Sermo was acquired for an undisclosed amount by WorldOne.
