18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

Prototypical answer:

Question 18(b)

The proposed .MED gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users and others by, among other reasons, providing a trusted name space wherein users can come to find trusted sources for medical information, consistent with the Cleveland Clinic’s mission of integrating clinical and hospital care with research and education in a digital world. The proposed .MED gTLD will further benefit registrants, Internet users and others by promoting consumer trust by providing a gTLD operated in a professional and commercially reasonable manner by an experienced management team, powered by a world-class back end registry provider (Verisign, Inc.) and backed by the Cleveland Clinic. Use of the .MED gTLD under the Cleveland Clinic’s stewardship will provide new on-line opportunities for medical practitioners, educators, providers, patients, vendors and users alike.

Awareness of the existence of the .MED gTLD will also benefit Internet users -- such awareness will create new choice within the DNS for how to access and locate medically-related information. Users will also benefit from the trusted, valued nature of the .MED space. Users can be confident that a domain in the .MED gTLD has as its registrant an entity which has been reviewed and approved by the Cleveland Clinic, and any content is consistent with the stated mission⁄purpose of the gTLD.

1. The goals of the .MED gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels and reputation.

A goal of the .MED gTLD is to serve as a trusted source on the Internet for medical-related information, providing people greater choice for obtaining such information. The Cleveland Clinic believes that multiple sectors of the healthcare industry would be implicated in the sharing of trusted information within the .MED gTLD, including:

* eHealthServices, including Telehealth, Remote Services and Non-Acute Services including Home Health, LTAC, Skilled, and Semi-Skilled Providers

* Pharma, including Pharmaceutical Providers and Consumers, Pharmacy and Mail-Order Pharmacy

* Pharmacy Benefits Manager

* Research, both Basic and Clinical

* Chronic Disease Patient Management, including Patient Monitoring

* Personal Health Record

* Medical Devices, including Medical Device Manufacturers

* Durable Medical Equipment, including Medical Device Manufacturers

* Health Exchange

* Medical Education, including health-related educational materials and continuing Medical Education

* Commercial Lab, accommodates both For-Profit and Non-Profit Labs

* Imaging, including Imaging Services

* Genomics, including educators and researchers

While it is not anticipated that all sectors identified above will become registrants of, or even provide content for, domain names within the .MED gTLD, the Cleveland Clinic anticipates that most, if not all of the above sectors involved in the Healthcare ecosystem would likely be interested in participating in some use of trusted information and⁄or services provided via the .MED gTLD.

A further goal of the .MED gTLD is to foster collaboration, in the public interest, for the purpose of a new online experience and environment for producers and users of medical-related information. Such collaboration will be fostered by the selected nature of allocation within the gTLD, and by adherence to the policies, rules and guidelines promulgated by the Cleveland Clinic and implemented by Medistry.

The Cleveland Clinic is associated with trust and professionalism in the provision of care, research and education in the medical field. It is the Cleveland Clinic’s goal to extend such trust and professionalism to operation and use of the .MED gTLD. In this regard, Cleveland Clinic anticipates that the same level of medical specialty, service and reputation associated with the Clinic’s mission⁄purpose in the non-digital world will cross-over to the .MED gTLD.

In terms of service level goals, it is Medistry’s goal for users to experience robust DNS industry standards for technical back-end operations, including but not limited to near 100% uptime; timely zone file dissemination; searchable WHOIS capabilities; and additional security measures such as for DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

In terms of reputation, it is the Cleveland Clinic’s goal to provide a gTLD that upholds the Clinic’s reputation in the medical industry, and it is Medistry’s goal to provide a gTLD operated (and recognized as being operated by users) in a professional and commercially reasonable manner by an experienced management team and powered by a world-class back end registry provider.

2. What the .MED gTLD will add to the current space in terms of competition, differentiation and innovation.

Creation of .MED will provide competition to existing TLD’s in the form of a trusted new name space for provision of medical-related information.

The stewardship of the Cleveland Clinic, along with Medistry’s intended allocation method, both inherently bring differentiation and innovation to the .MED gTLD. As previously noted, domain name registrations in .MED will not be “real-time”. All domain name registrations will take place by Request for Proposal only. Applicants for a .MED domain name will at minimum be required to state their qualifications to integrate clinical and hospital care with research and education. The Cleveland Clinic, through its interest in operating Medistry, is expertly situated to evaluate such applicants and proposals specific to .MED’s mission and purpose. Applications for a .MED domain name registration will be accepted or rejected at the sole discretion of the Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic has the depth, reach, and expertise to foster a collaborative environment for participants to work together for the common good, which will both differentiate .MED from its gTLD brethren and foster innovation in the .MED namespace. The .MED gTLD will evolve to become known as a source destination for medical information which users are able to trust.

The Cleveland Clinic anticipates that proposals will be received from many of the Healthcare sectors mentioned above. Consistent with its stated mission⁄purpose, the Cleveland Clinic intends to evaluate all such proposals towards creating a trusted, differentiated namespace for the exchange of medical-related information, and further for the promulgation of any use⁄registration⁄RFP policies, rules and⁄or guidelines, as the Cleveland Clinic sees fit in its sole discretion as the steward of the .MED gTLD, to foster user awareness, adoption, growth and use of the gTLD, all within the confines of the stated mission⁄purpose.

Over time, the Cleveland Clinic anticipates a single dedicated name space under the unique .MED gTLD, in combination with the reputation and professionalism users associate with the Cleveland Clinic, will resonate with users to create differentiation that otherwise could not exist in current gTLD’s. Further, provision of the .MED gTLD as a trusted, valued space will differentiate .MED from other, untrusted TLD’s.

While it is difficult to predict in exact terms what future innovation may occur as a result of the existence of the .MED gTLD, we expect the Cleveland Clinic to demonstrate the same capacity to innovate and adapt as they have shown over nearly one hundred years of operation. One possible example of this innovation which the Cleveland Clinic intends to explore is the option of providing a hierarchical and intuitive framework for the .MED namespace by using geographical identifiers as second-level domain names, as described further in the answer to Question 22.

3. User experience goals of the .MED gTLD.

A goal of .MED is for users to experience robust DNS industry standards for technical back-end operations, including but not limited to near 100% uptime; timely zone file dissemination; searchable WHOIS capabilities; and additional security measures such as for DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

Over time, an additional goal is for users to experience .MED websites as trusted, valued sources for professional clinical information, and particularly medical and care related information. One goal the Cleveland Clinic intends to explore is to provide professional information at domains which are associated with geographic and⁄or subject matter terms. Over time, users desiring to locate medical and care related information in a specific area, or services in a particular type, will be conditioned to navigate to “geographic.MED” or “subjectmatter.MED”. Consistent with the Cleveland Clinic’s mission⁄purpose for the .MED gTLD, the Cleveland Clinic will determine, in its sole discretion, who may register domains in .MED.

4. Intended registration policies in the .MED gTLD in support of the goals listed above.

Consistent with the stated mission⁄purpose for the .MED gTLD, the Cleveland Clinic will determine, in its sole discretion, who may register domains in .MED, and how such domains may be used. The Cleveland Clinic will set forth policies and practices relating to registration and use of domains in .MED which are reasonably necessary for the management, operations and purpose of the gTLD in light of its stated mission⁄purpose, and which are consistent with such mission⁄purpose. As set forth above, allocation will be by RFP under guidelines, rules and criteria as set forth by the Cleveland Clinic in its sole discretion.

Additional restrictions, policies or practices may be set forth by the Cleveland Clinic during initial operations of the .MED gTLD so that the .MED gTLD can be launched and initially operated in a controlled manner, granting the gTLD the opportunity to fulfill its stated mission(s)⁄purpose(s), and allowing the Cleveland Clinic the opportunity to study use of the gTLD and user adoption of the gTLD. Any such restrictions, policies or practices will also allow the Cleveland Clinic the ability to explore and implement user experience goals noted above and to find additional ways of achieving the missions⁄purposes identified above.

Cleveland Clinic will periodically review progress and adoption of the .MED gTLD with an eye towards maintaining consistency with the gTLD’s stated mission⁄purpose and achieving the goals set forth above. The Cleveland Clinic – in its sole discretion – may add, delete, amend or otherwise modify registration restrictions, policies and practices in support of the goals listed above. The Cleveland Clinic may also adopt use policies consistent with the principles set forth herein.

5. Measures for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of registrants and users.

Applicant does not at this time propose any measures for protecting the privacy of confidential information of registrants or users of .MED domain names, outside of what is required under applicable statute, contract or law.

6. Outreach and communications which will help achieve projected benefits.

The primary outreach and communications that will occur for .MED will be through the Cleveland Clinic and its related entities through existing channels of communication. Over time, Medistry expects these existing channels of communication to produce widespread awareness for .MED.

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