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OBGYN.net NEEDS YOUR HELP!From: Roberta (anonymous@obgyn.net)Thu, 22 May 1997 02:59:24 -0500
This message is for everyone who cares about OBGYN.net and would like to see the work we started a year ago continue and expand. Some of you (the OBGYN.net Advisory Board and Representatives) are aware that we have been approached by Ortho to be a sponsor of OBGYN.net. For others this will be the first time you have heard this story. I have decided to post this message to OB-GYN-L and The Women's Health Forum too because we really need every ones help on this one. The medical professionals who have helped to build OBGYN.net, the women that find it valuable, and the smaller vendors who benefit from the free opportunity it provides them to bring their services to the people who need them even though they cant afford to support it, can all help us out with this one. What's that old saying? Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have spoken to Diana Frost head of Physician Education at Ortho who I met at ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) Annual Clinical Meeting three weeks ago in Las Vegas. She has booked a meeting with me in New Jersey with us for June 10th. I told her the OBGYN.net Advisors were conversing privately by email and that they all had a lot of ideas of how Ortho could help make OBGYN.net better for both the women and the medical professionals. She was frankly delighted. She sees working with OBGYN.net as a way of interacting with you, the physicians and women on providing services that you really want and will use on the Internet that will reflect well on Ortho. What she doesn't want to do is see Ortho follow in the footsteps of so many of their contemporaries by building huge web sites that really don't provide any value and are only visited occasionally if at all. I told her that your major requests were for databases, online CME opportunities, more disease information and Forums for specific topics, aside from just getting OBGYN.net capitalized enough so that we can continue our work. As the head of physician education for the US Diana is a wonderful ally. She definitely has her head in the right place about what is really valuable. She is a very smart woman and she really wants her company to do the right thing. She also sees OBGYN.net as an excellent opportunity to enlighten women on the programs Ortho is providing to help educate their providers. She told me for example that Ortho sponsors CME courses for how to deal with special patients like the mentally or physically disabled and rape victims. They would like women to know they do this. They want to interact with their market in a positive way. They are not really concerned with just pushing products. They know they have great products and they know you know it. They want to give something back to the people who have supported them. I told her that I did not want to come in and do a 30 minute presentation on why they should buy. "one from column A and two from column B" for the marketing department. She laughed and said, "Yes, then someone can suggest that their nephew can build us a web site!". So they set it up so the initial meeting would take place with the top decision makers, herself; Dominic De Selva, head of Marketing; and Karen Shultz, their Internet person. Whew! I'm relieved! She also wants one or more of the Advisors to come (but this trip will be on our dime so don't everyone start packing yet ;-). I discussed the idea of having a roundtable meeting with the doctors and women or doing private chats, both of which they are very receptive to after this initial meeting. I think we should explore this opportunity and see what Ortho can do to help us expand our services at OBGYN.net. Frankly put, we are at the end of our financial rope. I had to borrow $25,000 last month from my sister, Barbara Nesbitt who runs the Women's Health Forum (for free), just to make payroll. I haven't drawn a salary since December. We are working day and night with a skeleton crew. If we don't get some sponsorship money soon we are all going to have to go out and get other jobs. I'm not trying to be a big whiner here, but I am trying to be straight with you all about the severity of the predicament OBGYN.net is in. We really need Ortho's help. You have all busted your tails for this project, believe me I know and appreciate it. You all are what keep us going some days when it all seems too hard. This group that started with Dr. Geff Klein's list, and I have had the privilege of helping to build OBGYN.net with, are the best thing on the internet! The huge amount of e mails I receive every day (and I try to answer and help every one) are a continuing reminder to me that we are making a difference. But now I really need your help. OBGYN.net is only in it's infancy in my mind. I invision a day when we will be able to bring all the wonderful Women's Health sites like KKH, Atlanta Reproductive, The Peoples Library of India, Lampada, Hygeia,, ICSI, CMS, Gyneweb, Obstetric Ultrasound, El GineWeb, NVOG and all the many other great women's sites under a blanket of sponsorship. This would allow us to get sponsorship funding for all these individual projects and work together to make OBGYN.net a truly collaborative effort for the advancement of the profession and women's health worldwide. This may sound ambitious but I have always believed that by working together it is an attainable goal, and we are really very close to pulling it off. We have become like a huge family on the Internet. I am preparing a proposal for Ortho that includes all of the wonderful e mails I have received from all the doctors. I want the good people at Ortho to be able to see that OBGYN.net represents a golden opportunity to work directly with all the people involved, both women, medical professionals and industry, to explore the possibilities rather than to try to put parameters around what we can accomplish. Because I believe together we can accomplish anything. I think it would make a very big impact if they heard from you all directly. I know, I know, some of you who have already given so much must be sick of writing e mails by now. But the importance of Ortho seeing all these messages coming in directly from all over the world cannot be overstated. Women and Doctors and Industry all working together internationally for a common goal. That is pretty powerful stuff. I guess I must have tunnel vision on this but I really believe we are going to make it, but now is the time for us all to galvanize and work together before the opportunity is lost forever. Please, anyone who has ever received a helping hand from OBGYN.net write to Ortho and tell them why it is a valuable service to you. Send them an email telling them how important it is that they get involved in OBGYN.net and help keep it going and growing. Even a one line response stating that you approve of their sponsorship will be extremely helpful and greatly appreciated by me and everyone who has worked so hard for this project. Please send your e mails directly to: dfrost@ompus.jj.com, dlaselva@ompus.jj.com, kshultz@ompus.jj.com and CC me at: And for those of you who don't feel comfortable writing too much in English even one line will be enough. I think quantity is what we should be trying for. Representing a unified and organized front will be very impressive. Again I cannot overstate how much we need your help. Thank you all for everything. Roberta
-- Roberta F. Speyer Founder of OBGYN.net President and CEO roberta.speyer@obgyn.net Elecomm Corporation http://www.obgyn.net 1900 West Koenig Lane (512) 451-2842 Austin, Texas 78756 (512) 377-5626 FAX
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