Tuesday, March 27, 2007

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. , March 27 -- Vimo, the Internet's leading healthcare comparison-shopping site, today announced awards for the nation's top web-based support groups for diabetics and the people that care about them. The awards are in coordination with American Diabetes Alert Day: today, March 27th. The Alert, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association, is an annual one-day call-to-action held on the fourth Tuesday of March for people to find out if they are at risk for diabetes. The goal of the Vimo Awards and the Alert is to raise the awareness that diabetes is serious, you can have diabetes and not even know it, and that taking the ADA Risk Test is an easy way to find out if you are at risk.

The Vimo awards announced today call out many smaller sites, in addition to the bigger "household name" health sites, for special recognition. Vimo hopes that the awards inspire consumers to educate themselves and explore the Web to find the diabetes communities that best meet their needs.

The Vimo Awards are based on an analysis and review of over 100 diabetes-related websites. A judges' committee consisting of health professionals, marketing professionals and health consumers evaluated the sites. These 100 candidate sites together represent most of dedicated topic-specific sites (or sub-sites) covering diabetes.

Vimo's research team gathered data through published materials, phone interviews and the Internet. While the Vimo website presents a broad range of quantitative comparative information on insurance carriers, healthcare providers and health products & services, these new Vimo Awards focus on the more qualitative aspects of the consumer experience when seeking advice, community and support from others dealing with a specific condition like diabetes.

Chini Krishnan, Vimo's CEO says, "There are a lot of sites out there for people to choose from, and it's difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison. So we wanted to focus on the sites that really enabled people to connect and interact. We wanted to pay special attention to the fact that the diabetes community is not monolithic. There are dozens of sub-communities, each with its own special needs and priorities. Vimo knows that in health, one size almost never fits all. And that's especially true here."

This year's Vimo Awards for Outstanding Diabetes Sites go to:

Best Diabetes Community Site, Overall: diabetes.org