Yesterday, we did a post on United Health Group’s new consumer initiative myOptumHealth commenting on how they have joined what is becoming an increasingly crowded market of look alike health & wellness solutions. Seems as if all these companies (WebMD, EverydayHealth, myOptumHealth, Revolution Health, etc.) are all using the same basic design templates: 2 columns, same revolving slides of 3-4 topics in upper left, same tools (BMI, calorie counter, symptom checker, etc.), smattering of ads…
Makes us just want to scream sometimes –
Is there really that little of imagination out there! Please, someone, ANYONE, shows us something original and captivating.
But alas, what should we come across but yet another company looking to provide the consumer with a health & wellness site. This time it’s coming from overseas and the big Indian IT outsourcing firm, Tata Consulting Services (TCS). Late last week, PCWorld published a brief article about TCS’s intentions for a site they built for the Indian market. TCS believes it has potential outside India – possibly here in the good ol’ US of A.
Doing a quick review of the WebHealthCentre, and looks like it has a very long ways to go before it stands a chance here in the US. Simply too much competition in the North American market and despite some unique features on their site (e.g., a spiritual center, online chat with care provider, several alternative medicine approaches on front page), TCS may be better off focusing on the local Asian market with their current platform. Besides, advertisements that promote online marriage proposals will not fly here in the States.
Of course, one thing that they might be able to do is morph the site into one that provides comprehensive information on medical tourism. Today, it is still too difficult ot pull this info together, but TCS’s deep local knowledge would give them a significant leg-up on any potential competitors.
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