African American Health - Interest Heats Up In Blackdoctor.Org, USA's 1st Health Portal For African Americans
"The buzz has been just phenomenal," says publishing and Internet entrepreneur Reginald Ware, who launched BlackDoctor.Org last fall. "It just confirms that there was a dire need for this product. It's fitting that BlackDoctor.Org is getting attention as we celebrate February and Black History Month. Historically, Blacks have suffered disproportionately from many diseases and conditions. It's a good time to acknowledge that Black health needs specialized attention, which is what we provide. We work to change African-American views on health and healthy living."
Launched November 15, 2005, BlackDoctor.Org is already fielding nearly 200,000 visitors per month. A unique presence in the marketplace, BlackDoctor.Org is chock full of health information that is of specific interest and concern to African Americans, including articles such as "The Top 10 Killers of African Americans," a diabetes risk test, and the country's first Soul Food Pyramid, which was developed by Roniece Weaver, executive director of Hebni Nutrition Consultants and diet and nutrition editor of BlackDoctor.Org.
"The Soul Food Pyramid is a great example of just how much of a bull's eye our content is and must be on BlackDoctor.Org," Ware says. "It breaks down and analyzes traditional soul food and its impact on the health of African Americans. You simply can't get such targeted information anywhere else." Articles such as the "Top 10 Killers of African Americans" speak to the health disparities in the United States. "The interesting thing about this feature is that the top 10 killers for African Americans differ from the top 10 killers in the general population," says Glenn Ellis, BlackDoctor.Org executive editor. "Three diseases that creep into our top 10 exclusively are homicide, HIV disease and septicemia. We clearly need a game plan that tells us how to better manage our health and BlackDoctor.Org delivers."
Weight loss, fitness, relationships and more also are covered on the site, making it a complete one-stop shop for all African Americans interested in accurate, timely and targeted health information.
"A website of this nature is long overdue," says Dr. Randall Maxey says, a kidney specialist who heads up the Medical/Editorial Advisory Board for BlackDoctor.Org. Dr. Maxey is past president of the National Medical Association (NMA). He also works with some of the country's largest church organizations as medical director of the Church Health Network, which provides health education and screenings to congregations.
"[BlackDoctor.Org] is a perfect complement to our Church Health Network and other organizations looking to promote healthy living with African Americans," Dr. Maxey says.
Interest in BlackDoctor.Org's free doctor search component has been especially keen this month. The database, which is now fully launched, is the largest on the Internet and contains contact information for over a thousand black physicians and dentists. "We've had lots of people calling to say that their doctor referred them to BlackDoctor.Org's free doctor search because they were moving and didn't know of a good black physician in their new area," Ware says. "That certainly validates the importance of this service." Ware based the Black doctor referral component on research indicating that doctor care is higher when doctor and patient are of the same race. "White and African-American patients who see physicians of the same race rate their medical visits as more satisfying and participatory than do those who see physicians of other races, even when the nature of the conversation in both types of visits is similar," found the 2003 Johns Hopkins study.
BlackDoctor.Org marks Ware's second foray into the health information field targeting Blacks. He founded the groundbreaking African-American healthy lifestyle publication Heart & Soul, which drew more than one million readers, in the 1990s.
Additionally, Ware's background includes creating Winhourly.com, which, at the height of the dotcom craze, was the leading gaming portal on the Internet.
For more information about BlackDoctor.Org, please call 312-222-1205.
To obtain a referral, visitors may use the portal or call 888-75-DOCTOR.
Reginald Ware
CEO
BlackDoctor.Org
116 W. Illinois Street
6th Floor
Chicago, IL 60610
BlackDoctor.Org
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