Living Well With Epilepsy: Turning a blog into a movement

Website

http://livingwellwithepilepsy.com

How would you cultivate a deeper relationship with the community you’d like to serve?

LivingWellWithEpilepsy.com encourages connections in a community where stigma and solitude are the norm. The blog has welcomed more than 12,500 visitors from more than 146 countries, including those as remote as Iceland and Uganda. The blog was recently honored as the only epilepsy resource to win a Web Health Award alongside such giants as Mayo Clinic Health System and WebMD. I now hope to transform Living Well With Epilepsy into a complete epilepsy resource online. Research has shown that health crises – such as AIDS or Breast Cancer – serve the patient community best by using a trilateral approach: a foundation; a research organization; and a complete online resource. I envision a site that provides the most up-to-date information, lowers barriers between patients and medical professionals, and builds relationships in a community that feels isolation and stigma. I want people with epilepsy to know they are not alone.

How would you use the $1,000 to turn your idea into a reality?

I have engaged a local business school to provide assistance in creating transforming the blog into a comprehensive site. Students would help me create a website that will become a central repository for information on local support groups, neurologists, epilepsy organizations, and events. The $1000 would be spent to establish the necessary infrastructure to create and launch the new site. The site will engage, connect and inform.

Discussion

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