[ad_1]
BelongLife.
(photo credit: courtesy)
It's no secret that Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms have become commodities in most of our lives. But have you ever stopped thinking why? What makes these networks so attractive to people and makes them something we depend on? The answer is, of course, complicated. We have said enough about the actual clashes of the products that these companies put into the experience that makes these platforms addictive, but there is something much more fundamental, more human that keeps bringing us back: the connection.
We are social creatures and we all like to be supported and encouraged by others. This desire is magnified when we are in a crisis situation, for example when someone is diagnosed with cancer.
According to the World Cancer Research Fund, there are about 18 million new cases of cancer in 2018 worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, 9.6 million people died of cancer in 2018. According to Cancer Research UK, there should be 27.5 million new cancer cases each year worldwide. here 2040.
However, despite the mbadive community of cancer patients, the experience of having cancer or acting as the primary caregiver for a cancer patient is paradoxically lonely.
Belong.Life, a company with offices in Israel and New York, is bringing people together from this isolated community.
The founders of Belong, Eliran Malki, Irad Deutsch and Ohad Rubin, each had extensive technological experience outside the health sector. For example, Malki previously founded, funded, and led several successful companies, including More IT Resources Ltd., acquired by Dell-EMC; Veracity Ltd. acquired by EMET; and others. However, after losing family members to cancer, the founders wanted to build on their vast technical knowledge to improve the care and support received by cancer patients and caregivers.
In 2015, they founded the free and anonymous Belong-Beating Cancer Together app for this purpose. Today, the application will help nearly 200,000 people in the fight against cancer in the world.
The application provides primarily a forum for emotional support groups, matching clinical trials, on-call doctors with whom patients can discuss and ask questions, as well as a secure method for organizing medical documents.
BELONG USERS can publish anonymously, which gives them the freedom to ask questions that they may be uncomfortable asking their doctor. Discussions on Belong forums range from baduality to cannabis, to alternative medicine, etc.
Belong allows cancer patients and caregivers to feel less alone. This brings them together with other people who understand their experiences and want to help them navigate a very complicated journey.
Belong's success is based on proprietary algorithms for machine learning and artificial intelligence, which provide the most relevant information and updates for each patient, based on the type and stage of the cancer. As a result, patients tend to use the application at high rates.
Belong also allows researchers to access application data (anonymously and securely), conduct research, and collaborate with leading universities to improve the processing standard of the application. Cancer. With the help of data and knowledge collected on its platform, Belong has already published research with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and other renowned international organizations. Research has been important, discovering even higher rates of dangerous side effects for an anticancer drug than those previously reported in clinical studies.
Following the worldwide success of Belong's cancer application, the company recently launched the Belong Patient Engagement Platform (PEP), which extends its reach beyond cancer, to a wide range of health issues. This solution provides healthcare organizations, patient advocacy groups and pharmaceutical companies with a complete solution that includes customized and configurable patient engagement tools, as well as navigation and management services.
Earlier this month, Belong raised $ 14 million of Series B funds. The investment was led by IQVIA (a publicly traded health care company with a market capitalization of $ 31.7 billion). dollars) and The Group Ventures. Belong said they would use these funds to develop and expand the world's largest cancer social network and the new PEP, designed to improve patient participation, education, compliance, satisfaction, coordination of care and efficiency.
It is undeniable that the ability to communicate with other people during the same trip as you, the ability to speak to experts anonymously is important to the well-being of the patient. Although many new treatments are being researched, until we can truly defeat cancer, Belong wants to make sure that people can live with and not feel lonely.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $ 5 and enhance your experience with an ad-free website and exclusive content. Click here >>
[ad_2]
Source link
