Interview with MedHelp CEO, John de Souza

[audio http://healthbb.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/medhelp3.mp3]
I spoke today with John de Souza, CEO of MedHelp, a popular website where patients can post questions about their health and receive answers from leading physicians. The service is advertising supported and attracts 4 million visitors a month. Although MedHelp fits into the Health 2.0 bucket, the company’s actually been around since 1994.John and I spoke about how patients use the site, why physicians and hospitals participate, and MedHelp’s growth plans.John was born in Ethiopia, left during the revolution and ended up at MIT where he studied medical robotics. The highlight of his academic career was getting accepted to Harvard Medical School, but he decided not to attend once he found out that US immigration rules would force him to go back to Africa before he could practice here! He's been an adviser to MedHelp almost since its inception, and took over as CEO a little more than a year ago.