History of MedHelp
Long before WebMD or even Yahoo, MedHelp pioneered the field of consumer health information on the Internet.
The motivating force behind the creation of medhelp is deeply personal to each of its founders. Cindy and Phil
met in December of 1993, while conducting research in CompuServe's Med-Sig Forum. When Cindy and Phil met in the
forum, they began discussing the difficulties each encountered in obtaining medical information, in lay terminology.
Cindy mentioned that one of her dreams was to create a service where patients would be able to contact leading
physicians and scientists, who could answer specific questions, in lay terminology, regarding their diagnoses.
In 1989, at the age of two, Phil's daughter was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Because of his daughter's
diagnosis, Phil and his wife were faced with having to make nearly instantaneous, life and death decisions regarding
her treatment, with little or no information to support them. To further complicate their situation, several of the
Neurologists involved in the case were in disagreement about the diagnosis and possible treatment options. Phil
spent countless hours pouring through medical journals, searching for what little information was available in lay
terminology. His goal was to educate himself so that he would be better able to make the decisions necessary to
save his daughter's life.
Having research, and
support information available to arrive at a
decision would have helped immeasurably. It
would have supported a decision that can be
lived with without having to look back and to
second guess. Today Jennifer is a healthy,
21 year old enjoying life and attending a four
year out-of-state university. She is
currently a senior majoring in sociology and
minoring in communications.
Conversely, Cindy's mother became ill in 1981 with an "unknown" illness that was slowly sapping the life from her.
It wasn't until a trip to the Cleveland Clinic in 1988, that Cindy's mother was finally diagnosed with a rare
disorder known as Systemic Mastocytosis. After receiving the diagnosis, her mother returned to her home to
Florida, where she began seeing a Hematologist/Oncologist. Sadly, her mother's condition continued to worsen
and additional problems, including urticaria pigmentosa and myelodysplasia were discovered. Her mother had
dropped from 135 lbs to 70 pounds, due to all the complications of this illness.
In 1990, while researching her mother's illness, Cindy was referred to a physician at the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) who had just begun to conduct research into Systemic Mastocytosis. Cindy called him and described
her mother's situation. The NIH physician contacted the Florida Oncologist working with Cindy's mother and
recommended he increase her dose of Prednisone. Within 2 days, her mother began to gain weight again.
Unfortunately, she had deteriorated so far, that she just couldn't make the long climb back. Cindy's mother
died in 1991.
Having spent more than 16 years working with physicians and scientists within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology
industries, Cindy vowed that if she was ever in a position to create a reliable resource for patients, which would
give them access to the highest quality medical information and support, she would!
Phil had more than 15 years experience in advanced software development. When Phil's software development expertise
was combined with Cindy's vast network of contacts within the medical community, medhelp was born.
In February of 1994, never having personally met, medhelpTM was incorporated. Because they so
steadfastly believed in their vision, they funded the first three years of business, out of their own pockets.
