HealthTree Foundation Announces New Social Media Platform: HealthTree Connect

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Feb 09, 2023, 14:09 ET

HealthTree Connect Provides New Opportunities for Blood Cancer Patient Interactions

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthTree Foundation, a patient-driven, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers patients at each step of their disease journey, announced today the release of its new social media platform called HealthTree Connect.

HealthTree Connect allows multiple myeloma, AML and MDS patients and caregivers to engage on social media about their disease without the distractions of other social media platforms. HealthTree Connect is completely integrated into the HealthTree suite of patient and caregiver tools to help them further navigate their blood cancer.

"HealthTree Foundation provides a complete set of tools to support and educate blood cancer patients. With the addition of HealthTree Connect, patients and caregivers can now connect directly with one another to share information and receive emotional support," said Jenny Ahlstrom, CEO of HealthTree Foundation.

In HealthTree Connect, patients can share posts, links, videos or images and comment or react to others' posts. Because HealthTree Connect is specific to the disease, the noise from other social media platforms is reduced to center the conversations on disease management and care. The HealthTree suite of tools is integrated using single sign-on, making HealthTree Connect simple and easy for low-tech users. HealthTree Connect is live on the multiple myeloma site and will be live shortly on the AML and MDS websites.

"My wife and I are both gun-shy of social media, neither of us are big Facebook people. But my wife joined the Smoldering Myeloma HealthTree Connect group and is now chatting with others who understand what she is dealing with. This is a huge step for her to reach out, and she finds it's very easy to use," said Bob H., a myeloma caregiver.

"The majority of conversations on social media about blood cancers center around treatments, side effects and emotional support," said Audrey Burton-Bethke, HealthTree Myeloma Community Manager. "HealthTree Connect expands the capabilities of our HealthTree Community chapters to facilitate daily conversations and connections between patients who belong to topic-based or geographic-based chapters."

For more information and other free tools, visit www.healthtree.org/connect.

About HealthTree Foundation

HealthTree Foundation educates, supports and empowers patients while hosting a living real-world data portal to accelerate cures. Multiple myeloma, AML, MDS and CLL patients can access the Foundation's resources for free. These include HealthTree Cure Hub, an online community tool that helps patients explore their best treatment options, find clinical trials based on their stage of disease and lab values, and contribute their de-identified data to accelerate a cure. Other HealthTree tools include a learning management platform called HealthTree University, a HealthTree Coach mentoring program, disease news sites, Community webinar events and a specialist directory. Jennifer Ahlstrom and her husband Paul founded the HealthTree Foundation which provides patient education, advocacy and research funding for multiple myeloma and other blood cancers.

SOURCE HealthTree Foundation