Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Health Help: Former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz Talks About New CareZone Start-Up (Video)

I certainly was not expecting the kind of start-up that former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz — he of the fantastic ponytail — showed off to me at AllThingsD.com Global HQ earlier this week.

No enterprise. No servers. No software.

Instead, a very intriguing new social networking site called CareZone, aimed at helping people managing chronic health care issues, whether it be elderly parents, sick children or others.

The private site, subscription-based and without advertising, feels like Facebook for dealing with illness, creating an online community among family members, as well as others involved in the care.

Among the features: Profiles, journals, contacts, medication information and a lockbox for key files such as advance directives, to-dos and notes.

Having just endured my own health care issue, I can tell you all the things to take care of become pretty complex and confusing, and are mostly done via email, paper and phone calls.

Schwartz said the idea came from his own difficult experience with his child, who has a chronic illness, as well as a recent health crisis his father had.

He is bootstrapping the seven-person start-up, based in San Francisco, which he founded with Apple and Microsoft vet Walter Smith, who is CareZone’s CTO.

The cost is $48 a year, or a monthly fee of $5, for a each patient.

Here’s the video interview I did with Schwartz on CareZone:

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work