Why MyHealthTeam Became a Swoop Company and What It Means for You

By Eric Peacock, Co-founder and President of MyHealthTeam, a Swoop company

After Swoop acquired MyHealthTeam last month, one of our clients - an executive of a leading health ad agency - told us, “I get it. It’s like chocolate and peanut butter.” And he was right on two levels, because when you combine the largest provider of programmatic health audiences (Swoop) with the largest set of patient communities (MyHealthTeam), you have complementary services coming together perfectly to offer something delightful for patients and pharma partners. Becoming part of Swoop was not just a business decision, but a mission-driven choice that advances us years ahead in our mission and impact. Here’s what’s in it for patients, pharma partners, and ad agencies. 

For people facing chronic conditions and their caregivers

MyHealthTeam’s mission is to help people facing chronic conditions “see around the next corner” by understanding what is coming next in your journey and how best to prepare for it. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and you don’t have to go it alone. For over a decade we have served that mission with a combination of information and introductions including medically-approved articles and videos with specialists in your disease, and introductions to thousands of other patients who have been in your shoes.  And while that has been a great start (over 30 million patients visit our 60+ communities every year), we wanted to do more. 

To truly personalize the information and introductions to our members, and provide the latest trends on how other patients in your situation are pursuing treatment, we needed a lot more data. Swoop's vast depth of claims data, machine learning, and AI capabilities will allow us to deliver personalized information to our members based on where they are in their patient journey. Imagine being able to predict which patients are about to stop taking their prescriptions for financial reasons, and proactively connecting them with financial assistance just in time so that they are able to stay on therapy. Imagine being able to connect a long-time psoriasis community member experiencing break-through symptoms to a video on cutting-edge therapies that could change their treatment journey. What’s relevant to a newly diagnosed patient is often quite different from what is relevant for a veteran patient on their third disease-modifying therapy. In the coming months you will see MyHealthTeam and Swoop bringing all this data to bear on behalf of patients - all in a 100 percent privacy compliant way.

For pharmaceutical executives and agency partners

Our pharma partners have three big requirements:

1. Reach all patients - Building authentic relationships that connect patients and providers with personalized messages and content across all the channels where they consume information. And proactively addresses medical events before they occur. Combining Swoop's custom and predictive DTC and HCP audiences with MyHealthTeam communities, gives brands unparalleled reach and accuracy. 
   
   
2. 100 percent privacy compliant in all states - Swoop's approach to privacy isn't just about compliance – it's about building trust and empowering patients. All data received by Swoop has been de-identified and irreversibly encrypted ​in full compliance with the most stringent state and federal laws, like the My Health My Data Act (MHMDA). The unique zero-knowledge methodology builds audiences without any reliance on consumer attribute, health, demographic, or inferred data. Patient privacy is not just critical – it's non-negotiable for patients and pharma partners.
   
   
3. True, omnichannel marketing - Imagine being able to target your messaging to patients and then programmatically reach the physicians treating those patients in a coordinated way. Together Swoop and MyHealthTeam allow you to do just that, ensuring that patients are hearing a consistent message online and in the doctor’s office. If you advertise on MyHealthTeam, you have the ability to reach all of the treating physicians of those patients. In addition, Swoop’s HCP Pro allows you to connect your target patient audiences beyond the community with the most valuable providers to your brand, enabling seamless messaging coordination, relevance, and impact.

In short, with Swoop and MyHealthTeam you get the most targeted and effective custom-built audience segments, the ability to reach every patient in every channel they consume content, the ability to reinforce that messaging with the HCPs who treat those patients, and the comfort of knowing that it is 100 percent privacy compliant.  

What’s Next for MyHealthTeam as Part of Swoop

Our vision has always been ambitious, but with Swoop's resources and expertise, we can achieve even more! The ultimate goal is for MyHealthTeam to become an indispensable part of the healthcare journey for anyone diagnosed with a chronic condition or rare disease. We see a future where, after diagnosis, a doctor actually prescribes our social network to their patient. It’s already happening in several conditions! We'll be the go-to place where people learn how to better manage their condition, connect with others who truly understand their experience, and access the most up-to-date, medically-approved information that is personalized based on where they are in their journey.

As part of Swoop’s commitment to empowering patients and improving outcomes there are four key areas of growth for us in the next year.

• More conditions served - Last year we launched patient communities in ten new conditions. That upward trend will continue in 2025.

• More patients reached within each condition - We are doubling down on our member acquisition efforts and leveraging Swoop’s incredibly valuable audiences to notify all patients about our free patient communities.

• Greater personalization - Will be based on Swoop’s predictive modeling and audience building 

• Stronger voice of the patient - We will continue to make sure the voices, opinions, and needs of patients are understood by our pharmaceutical and agency partners so that their decisions and investments reflect those patient needs. With Swoop Piper - our new AI tool - we make it easy for partners to access the latest sentiment and preferences of millions of patients every day. 

As we embark on this new chapter, I'm more committed than ever to our mission and looking forward to the next decade of growth!