Social networking services have so many uses in society, including medical applications. These online communities are initially adopted by healthcare professionals as a way to manage institutional knowledge and distribute new ideas.

The best advantage of using social networks for medical purposes is the fact that sites let all users deal with other people about their interests and profession at the same time. These social networks or sites capture the interest of the users because of its features, promoting pharmaceutical companies trying to give information to the readers. Social networks that focus on human health enables its members to share their knowledge about particular illness and symptoms. The members can also share methods of treating those sicknesses.

Examples of sites especially developed to feature health issues include PatientsLikeMe and SoberCircle. PatientsLikeMe was founded in 2004, but officially launched on October 10, 2005. It allows users to connect with other people having the same issues. Meanwhile, SoberCircle is more suitable for alcoholic or addict patients because it is a site that allows people to communicate with other patients like them. On the other hand, DailyStrength is a site supporting the other social sites like PatientsLikeMe and SoberCircle. DailyStrength was founded and officially launched on August 3, 2006. The DailyStrength headquarters is located in Los Angeles, California. The site supports other sites in their wide-ranging topics about health.

These three sites cited are still active up to the present. Their official web sites are http://www.patientslikeme.com/, http://www.sobercircle.com/, and http://www.dailystrength.org.