Last month, WebMD, one of the most trusted health portals online launched a social networking platform, WebMD Health Exchange. The social network’s purpose is to provide a new way to connect consumers to WebMD’s health experts as well as provide an outlet for online communities by encouraging users to share their personal experiences online.

In addition to creating their own moderated ‘expert’ forums, WebMD has also enabled users and third party sponsors to create branded forums on the network for personal topics of interest. User-generated forums can be public or private to a select group, encouraging an atmosphere of safety and trust, which is crucial to health discussion online.

This combination of trust and expertise is likely to create a new world of searchable online content, and the integration with the rest of WebMD will ensure a high PageRank. From heart disease to skin problems, both expert advice and firsthand experience will live side-by-side, fostering an ecosystem of personalized health information.

For any mysterious or common ailment, it is likely you will find yourself at WebMD.com, as 60 million visitors already do every month. By creating a more personalized experience and a reliable source of medical information, WebMD’s Health Exchange is definitely one of the social networks revolutionizing Health 2.0.

To try the network for yourself, you can visit http://exchanges.webmd.com/

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.