WPP Health & Wellness and 'The Mighty' Forge Patient-Centered Investment Partnership

NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- WPP Health & Wellness today announced its investment in, and partnership with Mighty Proud Media, Inc. ("The Mighty"), an early-stage online health community for people facing health challenges and disabilities.

For these patients and caregivers, the everyday challenges and search for answers, diagnosis, and effective treatment is often a long, lonely, and frustrating journey through the complex healthcare system. Despite their unprecedented access to medical information, these communities still face an innate and unmet need for social support, shared perspective, and connection to others living with the same or similar conditions.  To meet this need, 80 percent of Americans living with serious health conditions turn to online communities and platforms like The Mighty.

Launched in 2014, The Mighty was created to support, empower, and connect people and families living with chronic and rare diseases, mental illness, and disability with resources and each other. The Mighty now has more than 1 million community members on it platform. Its distinguishing value is in the authentic content generated by its members and health advocacy partners. Its nearly 30,000 personal essays and videos drive 90 million engagements per month.

More than half of all American families are living with serious and/or rare health conditions. Mike Porath, who has a daughter with a rare disease called Dup15q syndrome, founded The Mighty in 2014 to provide a community platform that connects people facing these challenges. 

"After we got our daughter's diagnosis, we felt lost, scared and alone. There's lots of great medical information on the web, but what helped us most was connecting to other people like us and sharing our experiences," said Mike Porath. "In creating The Mighty, we wanted to build a community where members could help each other through all the daily challenges, the emotional highs and lows, the small wins and milestones that come with whatever you happen to be dealing with. This partnership with WPP Health & Wellness expands on what we've built, will bring more resources to our community, and enable us to reach the broader healthcare community at a global level."

Leveraging The Mighty's unparalleled reach and patient community engagement, the partnership aims to strengthen the patient voice, facilitate new collaborative approaches that can deliver more patient resources, and ultimately accelerate the ongoing shift in healthcare to a more patient-centered paradigm.

Mike Hudnall, CEO of WPP Health & Wellness said: "As leaders in health communications, we have an obligation to help healthcare leaders find new ways to make meaningful patient connections and contributions that catalyze better health outcomes and healthier lives. Platforms like The Mighty not only provide a much-needed resource and forum for patients, they can also give healthcare leaders direct access to the patient challenges and practical needs that our clients are working to address. We are incredibly proud and excited to support and partner with The Mighty."

About The Mighty
The Mighty is a digital media and health company that empowers and connects people facing health challenges and disabilities. We provide a platform for community members to share experiences and publish personal essays, news and resources in many forms including video. The Mighty offers valuable resources and insights to patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations.

About WPP Health & Wellness
WPP Health & Wellness is a leading health marketing communications company, recognized for accelerating better health outcomes. As the central lead for all of WPP's work in health and wellness, we exist to mobilize and focus WPP's vast capabilities including advertising, media investment management, data & insights, technology, healthcare specialty services, digital and CRM, marketing innovation, public relations/public affairs, and other specialized areas, for the benefit of our clients. For more information, visit www.wpphealth.com.

Media Contact:
Chido Tsemunhu
Corporate Communications Director, WPP Health & Wellness
+1 212.210.5006
[email protected]

SOURCE WPP Health & Wellness