Google’s former lead health strategist has launched a new website SmartPatients that helps cancer patients connect with each other, and learn more about their disease.

Physician turned entrepreneur Roni Zeiger (above, left, with his cofounder) told me he left Google to form the company with Gilles Frydman, who founded the Association of Cancer Online Resources (ACOR), the world’s largest collection of online cancer communities.

The site was previously invitation-only, but after three months of testing and developing the product, it is ready for a public launch.

Cancer patients are currently using the site to access the latest information about clinical trials, join conversations with other patients, and learning about other types of cancer. It’s primarily designed for patients, but is also being used by caregivers and doctors.

“Cancer communities are siloed,” said Zeiger by phone. “There are missed opportunities for learning across boundaries,” meaning that certain symptoms are shared by patients with different strains of cancer.

The key to the company generating real revenue is that patients offer feedback about clinical trials.

SmartPatients is already teamed up with various foundations and nonprofit organizations, including the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, and Cancer Commons. A partnership with WorldOne, the company that acquired Sermo, one of the largest online communities for physicians, will provide doctors with an opportunity to listen in to the conversations among patients.

However, the company makes clear that while it plans to make money through voluntary surveys and insights, it will not share personally identifiable information about patients. The business model is designed to help partners in the health care industry incorporate the patient perspective into future clinical trials.

SmartPatients is a self-funded effort, but the founders are hoping to raise a round of funding in the coming months.

What innovation can we expect to see in health care? We’ll be examining the theme of the “Smart Hospital” at HealthBeat, VentureBeat’s conference on May 20 & 21. 

The system combines a sensor that snaps onto asthma inhalers with a mobile app that displays data to the user and provides insights about their treatment. The company also provides personalized feedback in email, text, mail, and personal calls to help patents more effectively manage their disease. For clinicians, Asthmapolis provides dashboards with real-time and summary data so they can monitor their patients.

“No one offers an automated, comprehensive disease management platform like we do – combining sensors, apps, analytics and personalized services for patients – and we’re the only ones to date that have FDA clearance for this type of solution,” said CEO and cofounder David van Sickle, PhD in an email. “Traditional disease management doesn’t combine technology with services in this way, and disease management apps don’t collect passive information through sensors or provide real-time feedback with nurse educators.”

Sickle formerly worked as a epidemiologist focusing on asthma and respiratory health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was frustrated by the lack of objective and timely data about asthma, as well as the lack of communication between doctors and patients that comprised treatment of the disease. He said doctors lacked information about their patients between visits, and patients often misunderstood how to effectively control their asthma. By using inhalers to capture data, Asthmapolis seeks to bring a greater level of transparency and insight to the treatment and prevention of the disease.

Asthma is still a pervasive problem in the U.S.. Each year, uncontrolled asthma leads to 500,000 hospitalizations, 2 million Emergency Room visits, 10 million physician visits, and 25 million missed days of school or work. Additionally, 60% of asthma conditions are uncontrolled, but getting it under control can potentially save patients thousands of dollars.

Asthampolis can also save hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies money. The startup has rolled our commercial partnership programs with Amerigroup Florida (Wellpoint), Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in New York, Dignity Health in California, and pharmacy and public initiatives in the City of Louisville. To date, Asthmapolis claims to have helped users achieve 20,000 asthma-free days. This financing will support development of new services to extend its reach to people living with all forms of chronic respiratory disease, not just asthma.

The company is based in Madison, Wisconsin. It was founded in 2010.

Photo Credit: Asthmapolis

Today, Scanadu unveiled three health products that help people get in touch with their physical health. Billed as “the biggest innovation in home medicine since the invention of the thermometer,” these home diagnostic tools use mobile, sensor, and social technology to create a real-time, comprehensive picture of your health data.

Scanadu SCOUT is a sensor that people hold up to their temple, and in less than ten seconds, it will collect data on pulse, heart rate, electrical heart activity, temperature, heart rate variability, and blood oxygenation. The device be available at the end of 2013 for $150.

The second tool, Project ScanaFlo, analyzes urine for conditions like pregnancy complications, preeclampisa, gestational diabetes, kidney failure and urinary tract infections. This disposable cartridge will be sold over-the-counter.

Finally, Scandau will sell Project ScanaFlu. This disk tests saliva through a disposable cartridge to detect Strep A, Influenza A, Influenza B, Adenovirus, and RSV. Catching respiratory disease and the flu early generally leads to a speedier recovery.

All the data collected through these devices will be tracked through the mobile app, which offers a personal health feed to monitor vitals signs and identify patterns over time. By “sending your smartphone to med school,” mobile devices become a powerful tool to keep people in tune with their bodies.

“People can get access information about health and connect to each other about health, but the piece that is missing is that people can’t get information about their own body,” said founder Walter De Brouwer in an interview with VentureBeat. “By getting precision diagnostics into the hands of people, this can enable them to get early detection and to inform their conversations with their doctor in the ways that haven’t been possible.”

De Brouwer is a “futurist, academic, scientist and entrepreneur” who helped found TEDGlobal and worked with the One Laptop Per Child initiative. In 2005, his son suffered brain trauma and spent a year in the hospital. This experience inspired De Brouwer to leave academia and set out to change the healthcare industry.

The American health industry is in a state of flux, with significant reforms and technological developments affecting the way people think about healthcare and its providers. De Brouwer said that that the center of gravity is moving out of hospitals and into outpatient care, and tools like this can lead to better, smarter care for more people, at a fraction of the time and cost.

Scanadu is based at the NASA-Ames Research Center and is part of the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize competition. These three products are just the beginning. The crack team of biohackers, doctors, scientists, engineers, PhDs, and MDs are full of ideas for the future, including testing for AIDS and “embarrassing diseases” where patients feel shy about seeking medical help.

Of all the noble causes out there, the prevention of infectious disease is high on the list. This is certainly part of the mission for biotech company Visterra, which has completed a $26 million round of funding to support technology that discovers and develops antibodies used in the prevention and treatment of major diseases. The company’s lead product, VIS410, targets multiple types of influenza, and the investment will contribute to widening the scope of the platform.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Omega Funds contributed $13 million, in addition to a $13 million previously raises from Polaris Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, and Lux Capital. Visterra is based in Cambridge, Mass. Read the press release.

Many of us loves boobs. There is certainly no shortage of boobs online, but they are often used for a good cause. Fortunately, the Avon Foundation is using the Internet to save them.

The Avon Foundation for Women is a major supporter of breast cancer and has distributed more than $860 million to programs around the world that support both research and access to care. A major component of its fundraising efforts are the Avon Walks, two-day, 39-mile walkathons that take place around the country.

These events bring together thousands of women and their supporters and raise millions of dollars. This past weekend at the walk in Santa Barbara, 1,700 participants collectively brought in $4.7 million. The only pre-requisite for signing up, aside from a dedication to the cause, is walkers must raise a minimum of $1,800.

For many, the financial challenge is more daunting than the walk itself.

“One of the barriers for people to participate is the worry that they can’t raise the money, especially for people who have never fundraised before,” said program director Eloise Caggiano. “By making it super-easy for them to do the fundraising using our website, apps, and social media, we can alleviate some of their fears. We do anything we can do break down these obstacles.”

The foundation has come a long way in the past couple years with regard to social media. Based on demand from consumers and participants, the organization began using technology to engage more with their community. Walkers can easily register online or from their smart phone. The Avon Walk application for the iPhone enables fundraising on the go. People can also use these tools track their fundraising progress, reach out to donors, and send “thank you” messages.

Avon has also partnered with Runtastic to create a pedometer app that monitors steps, distance, and speed during preparatory walks. People in training can post progress updates on their social networks, conveniently next to a “Donate Now” button. 

A huge number of participants use their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts as part of their individual fundraising efforts. The Avon Walk Facebook page itself has 50,000 fans and is full of shared stories, photos, and videos to digitally communicate the experience of the walk. Caggiano said the capability to see in advance what the walk is like is comforting to women who are nervous and is also encouraging for those on the fence about signing up.

“The more we can get the word out there, the better,” she said. “Keeping up with the times is an important element in that. If we keep printing out brochures and putting them in snail mail when everyone else is online, then we aren’t being very smart. We want as many people to know about the good work as possible, and for people to feel comfortable with who we are and what we do.”

The Avon Foundation also uses their enhanced online and mobile presence to keep supporters in the loop about there their money is actually going. Avon provides donations to a variety of causes, and a feature on the site shares the real-world impact of the dollars.

Michael Spatz turned his social media power into $11,000. Spatz lost his mother to breast cancer and knew multiple friends who also struggled with the disease. He felt helpless and wanted to take action, so he signed up for the Avon Walk.

“As a guy, I don’t know what is going on inside a woman’s body,” he said. “As you get older, things start to happen to the people you love and care about. It is a harsh reality. This is what I was able to do, and I did it all to social media, emailing and Twitter.”

Spatz began his fundraising efforts online. He created T-shirts with cute slogans on them like “Viva La Boobies” and posted to his Facebook that anyone who contributed $20 would get a free shirt. His efforts spiraled. Soon, he had hundreds of requests for T-shirts coming in and people sending thousands of dollars in checks. He completed his fundraising within a month.

The walks are examples of events where the journey is just as significant as the destination. People spend months fundraising, training, and raising awareness their efforts and this pervasive disease. While technology is useful for fundraising, one of its most powerful effects has been the capability to connect women all over the country, before, during, and after the events.

Participants are able to reach out to a wider audience, including people from around the world or those they have lost touch with. On platforms like MyBreastCancerTeam, women facing the disease can find a protected, nurturing, safe support network. The internet offers opportunities, not only to raise money but to also meaningfully rally around a cause in an online environment.

In this case, the cause is to Save the Ta-Tas!

If you’re suffering a headache or feeling nauseous, it could be related to your environment, and those around you — and it’s helpful to know that. By typing in your zip code, you can see whether anyone else near you has reported similar symptoms. It lets anyone access the site and update sickness information immediately. The company’s founder PT Lee seeded the site with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but has since relied on user submissions.

CDC’s BioSense, which hospitals and public health departments use to detect disease outbreaks, is restricted to use only by officials of those organizations. CDC also has weekly updated flu site. However, there are no other ways to get real-time information about these and other symptoms. So far, as you’ll see in screenshot below, the site tracks the following: fever, headache, muscle ache, runny nose and stomach ache. There’s also a “more symptoms” option and a box where you can describe your symptoms in detail.

This is a great way to help in the defense against possible pandemics like a bird-flu pandemic, however Lee said he is not tracking such symptoms for now, and doesn’t want to. That, ebola, e-coli, AIDS are all being tracked by other sites, and he wanted to track more common sicknesses. Also, the site is vulnerable to scare-mongers, who may spam the site with false reports. Lee told VentureBeat he is limiting each visitor session to five submissions, and is working on a way to track IP addresses, and to produce a community red-flag system, which would let users alert Lee’s team to possible spam. He’s also doing database analysis, looking for suspicious patterns, though admits he’s cleaning up about six hours behind submission times — and has deleted about 30 posts.

Still, we’d encourage Who is Sick to obtain sophisticated tracking and moderation techniques, so that it can be more comprehensive — and track the more serious diseases. That would boost its traffic and make it even more useful.

The self-funded company is based out of Los Angeles, CA.

(This post was written with assistance from Rex Dixon)