Comments for

Health 2.0 - Apps & Trends to Watch

2008-03-10T03:59:58Z

Editor's note: last week the Health 2.0 Conference was held in San Diego - see our review. Josh Rosenthal, founder of Sprigley, was also there and in this post he identifies some of the health web apps that caught his eye, plus trends that were discussed.

ReliefInsite is a site that allows people to map, monitor and analyze their pain. It drew perhaps the most attention at the conference.

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ReliefInsite

One other buzz-worthy app was Pharma Surveyor, which helps people understand and personalize their medication regimens.

On Call Medical Group isn't so much of a tool for consumers, as a group of doctors making house calls who happen to use nifty tools.

And of course, there were a host of community sites - some focusing on doctors and services, like Vitals and HealthGrades, and others focusing on treatments and information like WEGOHealth, Trusera and CarePages. Others were somewhere in between, like MedHelp.

Now that consumer and web companies like Google and Microsoft have climbed in the ring, there's a definite cool factor in health 2.0 - as evidenced by Adam Bosworth and Esther Dyson being in the room. The fact that Adam's new venture, KEAS, is in the healthcare space should speak volumes to anyone wondering if this whole thing is for real.

Health 2.0 Trends

A few trends coming out of the conference. First of all, employers are currently driving the show. 'Consumer owned healthcare' isn't quite here yet. Just like with financial services and the 401k, early adoption will come through employers. Next trend: corporations and pharma are getting into social networks. And that's causing tension. People participating in grass roots sites like Matthew Zachary's I'm Too Young for This, selected by Time Magazine as one of the Top 50 Websites (2007) are very sensitive to the 'big corporation' ethos and it often repels them. If a social networking site attempts to integrate drug ads, they'll have to be very, very careful; a point made by members of various online communities and Zarachry himself.

Final trend of note: Google and Microsoft. Many great ideas about health care fail. The system is complex; heavyweights are entrenched. Google and Microsoft represent a threat to some and an opportunity to others. In either case these two Internet heavyweights in health will be something to watch over the course of the next year.

Written by Josh Rosenthal, Ph.D., founder of www.Sprigley.com and a speaker at Health 2.0

Comment from Daniel Kogan on 2008-03-12

2008-03-12T22:33:08Z

I was in attendance at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Diego. I was filled with a renewed source of energy being surrounded by such a supportive group of people all focused on the betterment of health care in the US.

There was a time when a very small group of people surrounding Matthew Holt's vision was all that encompassed Health 2.0. Last week the room was full with representatives from all major corporations that are now backing the Health 2.0 movement.

You put it perfectly with your statement, "The fact that Adam's new venture, KEAS, is in the healthcare space should speak volumes to anyone wondering if this whole thing is for real."

Dan Kogan
CEO, Health World Web

Comment from Digitaldoc, MD on 2008-03-10

2008-03-10T21:56:28Z

If Only Pain data could be USB-wired into a application real time ;-) - especially acute emergency conditions like appendicits, developing Myocardial Infarction where the transits of pain location-wise is of diagnostic importance...

Comment from Bob Boynton on 2008-03-10

2008-03-10T17:44:19Z

It looks like several of the services covered in this post could be very helpful. For example, being able to pinpoint the location and severity of pain could be helpful when communicating with one's doctor. It might be even more valuable for making comparisons over time.

That said, before we start putting our medical information into one of these sites we need the bill of rights that Smarr, Canter, Scoble and Arrington wrote last September to become how we are treated by these sites. Without this protection -- appended below -- we should "look a gift horse in the mouth."

GRB

A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web
Authored by Joseph Smarr, Marc Canter, Robert Scoble, and Michael Arrington
September 4, 2007

We publicly assert that all users of the social web are entitled to certain fundamental rights, specifically:

Ownership of their own personal information, including:
their own profile data
the list of people they are connected to
the activity stream of content they create;
Control of whether and how such personal information is shared with others; and
Freedom to grant persistent access to their personal information to trusted external sites.
Sites supporting these rights shall:

Allow their users to syndicate their own profile data, their friends list, and the data that’s shared with them via the service, using a persistent URL or API token and open data formats;
Allow their users to syndicate their own stream of activity outside the site;
Allow their users to link from their profile pages to external identifiers in a public way; and
Allow their users to discover who else they know is also on their site, using the same external identifiers made available for lookup within the service.

Comment from Sarah on 2008-03-10

2008-03-10T16:16:38Z

I use online banking, online payment and online trading services, so I’ve already been trusting the web to keep my information secure. Simply put, it really helps me – speed, efficiency, management view. And then the really cool 2.0 sites like Wesabe.

Right now my health records are scattered throughout three different cities. My family doc, a great guy, has paper files. I’m pretty sure he keeps them in the basement. I wouldn’t really call that safe. I’ve changed jobs a few times in the past few years. And so my insurance has changed. And my doctor changed. Stuff is scattered everywhere.

I’d like my own health information. My insurance company already has all my info. They know everything and they’re the ones who keep raising my rates. Come to think of it my employer must know all that stuff too. Why don’t I get anything out of it?

I’m all for consumer companies giving me something for it. Just so long as I control it. And it would be great if I had all that when I change jobs and insurance. Heck I already trust Google to read the content of my email and pop up little ads in Gmail (because Gmail is the best email going). That also seems like what should happen. Everybody talks about people needing to get involved in their own care. It seems like sites to help me take control would be a really good idea. Maybe not for everybody but I’d love it!

There’s nothing wrong with participating with a doctor but trusting them blindly is a bad idea. The good ones will tell you that too. (Actually, I’ve always found nurses to be the most helpful.) And if you’re every diagnosed with something serious you’ll very quickly find out that by using the web you soon know more than your doc. And the support is really important too. My friend was diagnosed with something really serious last year. She absolutely loves the Daily Strength support site.

Comment from Stefan on 2008-03-10

2008-03-10T09:08:51Z

I'm furthermore aware of the Health 2.0 movement. As a technician, this is hard to comprehend, but i think my personal health informations are not for the web. I really enjoy the ways my life is improved by steady development of beautiful and usable web applications that fit everyones needs. But this looks like a step to replace a real-world institution, a skilled medic.

A few years ago we all knew to don't trust in some varieties of informations in the web: Don't believe in conspiracies, don't imagine this picture hasn't been photoshop'ed, don't cup your life in WorldWideWeb's hands. Why did we change about it? What has altered so that we now can seriously trust in anonymous provided health informations on the web?

I know that not all of those offerings are hit by my criticism, but some don't understand themselves as a extension to given establishments that can't be replaced. But - from my personal point of view - this is how Web 2.0 works and evolves. Maybe i misunderstood or missed the signaling, but it's profoundly important to communicate the intention and use of that kind of applications the right way.

As a matter of course i would like to see myself persuaded by you. Tell me why i should seriously trust in you. Until that i will stay and watch the trend.

Best Regards,

Stefan