Laura Kolodjeski (@lkolodjeski), Community Manager for Sanofi US Diabetes, sent me a Twitter DM this morning announcing the launch of Diabetapedia (di-ah-bee-tah-pee-dee-ah), a new site “to help meet educational needs of diabetes community.” According to Laura, the goal is to create “a single, comprehensive place where anyone can find and share definitions of diabetes-related terms and phrases.” The site’s tag line is “Diabetes doesn’t define you… so define diabetes.”
The name “Diabetapedia” invokes a comparison to “Wikipedia,” the online encyclopedia comprised of user-generated content. Diabetapedia does accept contributions from visitors who can use a form on the site to suggest a new term. To use the site, however, you first search for a term as if you were using Google. In fact, the site’s home page has the simple look of a “Google” for diabetes site: a single large box for entering a term located under a large logo:
The results of a search also resemble what you would get with Google. It remains to be seen if Diabetapedia will jazz up it’s logo and modify it to celebrate certain holidays the way Google does.
The simplicity of the interface also makes the site easy to access from your mobile phone. However, it is NOT optimized for mobile use (eg, the search results, etc., do not line break to enable you to read the entire definition without scrolling side to side).
Of course, there are guidelines. Terms that are appropriate for inclusion in the site include:
- Terms that directly relate to diabetes (e.g. blood glucose meter)
- Diabetes jargon, slang, or abbreviations (e.g. DOC, d-mom, blue Fridays)
- Twitter hashtags that are specific to diabetes discussions (e.g. #dsma, #sweatbetes, #bgnow)
- Diabetes-focused advocacy groups (e.g. The American Diabetes Association, The Diabetes Hands Foundation)
The most important guideline as far as pharmaceutical companies are concerned is: “do not post terms that are specific to brand names of diabetes management products.”
Sanofi previews all suggestions and Sanofi promises to contact users if it requires clarification about submissions.
The site currently comes with 119 common diabetes terms and corresponding definitions. “All of the terms include a general definition from the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary (when available), a more specific diabetes-related definition, and any alternate uses of the term that might apply. For some,” says Laura in her post introducing Diabetapedia (here), “we even included an example of a tweet or a post that demonstrates how the term is commonly used.”
I hope to have Laura as a guest on my Pharma Marketing Talk show and get some more details about the site and how Sanofi hopes it will grow. One question I would ask: “Do you plan to release a Diabetapedia mobile application?”
See the questionnaire at the end of this post where you can suggest improvements for Diabetapedia and ask your own questions for Laura to answer.
P.S. Laura points out that Diabetapedia visitors’ “Likes and Tweets” “may help create” a program called Diabetes Advocates run by the Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF). The purpose, says Laura, is to “connect individuals and small organizations that have taken a leadership role in improving the world for people touched by diabetes. In 2012, Sanofi US Diabetes is proud to sponsor the Diabetes Advocates program to help empower its members to have a greater impact by helping them improve their reach and effectiveness.”
A discussion of this post on Twitter:
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