Inspire is an Arlington, Virginia-based healthcare social network. It builds and manages online support groups for patients and caregivers, and connects patients to life science companies for the purpose of research.
Overview
Founded in 2005, the company serves more than one million patients and caregivers in several hundred online support groups. These online groups are mostly organized around a single condition, such as psoriasis, ovarian cancer, or lung cancer. Online health communities like Inspire are referenced as components of the empowered patient, or e-patient movement.
History
Brian Loew, Amir Lewkowicz and Walter Wlodarczyk, founded Inspire. It was first known as Clinica Health until March 2008. As of early 2017, the Inspire community had over one million registered members, more than 300,000 of whom are affected by cancer. Inspire had about 80,000 members in 2008.
Partnerships with nonprofit advocacy organizations
Inspire generates company revenue from market research and promotional services to pharmaceutical companies. Inspire’s market research services include online surveys, user-generated content analysis, and moderated online private research communities. Examples of promotional projects that Inspire would provide on behalf of a pharmaceutical client include branded or unbranded banner ads that Inspire serves in its online communities and the delivery of targeted, permission-based emails to community members.
Research projects
Pharmaceutical companies have worked with Inspire on research projects that focus on rare disease populations or populations of patients who have advanced disease, such as metastatic lung cancer. In March 2018, the publication JAMA Oncology published a research letter, based on research involving Stanford University and Inspire. National Public Radio reported on the Stanford/Inspire study with the article, . In 2015, members of Inspire's lung cancer group self-organized and submitted a request that helped changed treatment guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Health technology industry executive John Glaser cited Inspire in an industry magazine column citing the importance of healthcare social networks to clinical research. "In addition to helping patients find and take advantage of clinical trials, health care social networks also provide an opportunity for participant-led research," Glaser wrote, "in which members initiate new fields of study. For instance, Inspire members with spontaneous coronary artery dissection persuaded researchers at the Mayo Clinic to launch new research into the condition, which led to the creation of a SCAD registry, a key step in the further study of this rare disease. Indeed, there is tremendous potential for online patient communities to contribute to the project of a continuously learning health system."
Awards and recognition
The Washington Post profiled Brian Loew in April 2017 around the time Inspire's membership surpassed one million patients and caregivers. The article states, "Loew and his company are attached to the surge of patient assertiveness, with more people questioning their health care and taking more of the responsibility out of the hands of professionals." Brian Loew has been named to PharmaVOICE magazine's "PharmaVOICE 100" three times, in 2014, 2016 and 2017, for his contributions to the life sciences industry." The Mayo Clinic named Amir Lewkowicz as a keynote speaker at its Healthcare Social Media Summit 2016 in Melbourne, Australia.
