WEGO Health Experts aims to connect health care companies with patient experts

WEGO Health Experts

WEGO Health unveiled WEGO Health Experts, the first on-demand digital matching platform to pair health care organizations with patient influencers who are part of the growing sharing economy. The platform is designed to eliminate the barriers companies face when trying to find patients with the time, skills and expertise to consult on health-related projects.

“Hyper-connected and engaged patients can be among the most valuable assets in health care, but until now it’s been a slow, one-off process to capitalize on their expertise,” Jack Barrette, WEGO Health founder and CEO, said in a statement. “With WEGO Health Experts, we’re bringing thousands of highly skilled patient experts into the sharing economy and connecting the health care industry to a massive, untapped workforce.”

Patients who can be hired as consultants through WEGO Health Experts have professional experience that is particularly relevant to health care companies, including backgrounds in research, software engineering, information technology, digital marketing, and business strategy. One of them, Bob Tufts, is a Princeton graduate and Columbia MBA who worked as a Wall Street analyst for 20 years before being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2009. Following his battle with cancer Tufts founded My Life is Worth It, an online campaign that advocates for affordable cancer care.

In a 2016 survey, WEGO Health found that its members each engage an average of 15,000 followers per month. They are three times more likely than a typical health consumer to use a health app and five times more likely to write an online review.