WebMD is the most trusted online health brand, gets more traffic than any other health site, and they just launch WebMD Health Exchange. Every other startup online health community out there should be petrified. It’s like owning the town five and dime and having WalMart show up. It’s too early to tell the impact the WebMD communities will have, but they have smartly setup communities moderated by their experts (driving quality and more trust) but also allow anyone to create their own exchange which will allow for innovation and more traffic.

Big questions ahead…who will be the first big pharma to sponsor an official “exchange” in their therapeutic area? Should a big brand hospital setup their own communities, or grab some virtual land under the WebMD banner? Are Facebook fan pages still the way to go, or can you get higher quality health-targeted members on WebMD?

What do you think the impact of WebMD Health Exchange will have on health communications?