ReadWriteWeb

We've just been introduced to an interesting company: Doctations. This relatively new site aims to open communication channels and online services to turn any doctor's practice into a web-based community.

The software, an Internet-based healthcare transaction interface, allows doctors to upload and save medical data, to share test results with patients, and to analyze information with their colleagues. Patients in this system can manage their healthcare, schedule appointments, request prescription refills, research medications, access articles, and communicate with doctors - all securely, quickly, and cost-effectively. Our question: Why aren't systems like these in place everywhere right now?

This weekend, developers, UI designers and testers combined forces to share ideas and collaborate at the third annual iPhone Dev Camp. The event encourages individuals at all levels to continue to stretch the development boundaries of the iPhone and iPod touch. The event's Hackathon competition offers an exhibition of attendee projects and is a showcase of some of the industry's brightest innovators. Below are some of the latest trends amongst those innovators.

"There are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world, 305 million computers but only 11 million hospital beds," said Terry Kramer, strategy director at British operator Vodafone at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this week. That's why Vodafone, along with the United Nations and the Rockerfeller Foundation's mHealth Alliance have banded together to advance the use of mobile phones to better aid those in need of healthcare in the developing world.

According to Manhattan Research, a healthcare market research company, personal health records (PHR) are slowly becoming more popular in the U.S., but concerns about privacy and a lack of understanding, as well as doubts about the efficiency of PHRs are holding back widespread adoption. Only about 7 million adults in the U.S. actually use PHRs. Especially those without serious illnesses often don't see the need for using electronic health records.

It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. On the trends side, we gave you an overview of health 2.0 and followed up with a RWW Live podcast on the topic. We also looked at the state of the art in recommendation technologies and offered some tips for the Internet bigcos as they head into 2009. On the product side, we further analyzed Google's search wiki experiment, listed the favorite mobile apps of the RWW writers and our readers, and looked at Firefox China version. We also have highlights from the Enterprise Channel and our brand new product that tracks hires in tech and new media, Jobwire.

On Monday we reviewed the state of health 2.0 and it was also the topic of this week's RWW Live, our live podcast show. At the end of the podcast, I asked all the panelists to list their favorite health 2.0 app (about the 58:30 mark if you want to listen to it). I've listed all the apps the panelists chose at the end of this post, but I wanted to highlight my own choice in this post. I selected MyMedLab, an online lab testing service - despite it being only available in the U.S. There appear to be two key benefits to MyMedLab, and similar services such as MedLabUSA. One is that a doctor's prescription isn't required because the test requests are approved by in-house physicians. The second is that tests can be completely confidential to the user. Both of these benefits have drawbacks though, which we'll discuss below.

We have been tracking the so-called 'health 2.0' trend for some time now. We've covered the top health web apps, the trends to watch in health 2.0, and the latest industry stats. And this morning we published a Health 2.0 update. So in this week's episode of RWW Live, to be broadcast live at 3.30pm PST Monday (6.30pm EST), the ReadWriteWeb authors get together with a number of industry experts to discuss how the Web is changing health care.

You can tune into the show, and interact with us via the chat, by clicking here. You can also use the Calliflower Facebook app to tune in and participate.

One year ago, I discovered that I had contracted Type 1 Diabetes. I was 36 at that point and it's relatively rare for someone of my age to suddenly get Type 1 Diabetes - indeed they used to call this form of diabetes "juvenile diabetes", because it mostly occurs in children. So it was quite a shock to discover that I had it! Immediately I looked to the Web to find out all I could about this condition. I discovered a thriving community of 'health 2.0' apps and social networks, which I then wrote about in this blog.

As it's now a year later, I thought it'd be good to review health 2.0 - as I did with Semantic Apps last week. What has changed in web-based health services over the past year? And indeed what web tools do I use to help me manage diabetes?

A report was released today by pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research, stating that the number of U.S. adults who are Health 2.0 consumers has risen to over 60 million. Manhattan Research defined Health 2.0 consumers as those who have conducted one of the following activities in the past 12 months: read health-related blogs, message boards or participated in health-related chatrooms; contributed or posted health content online such as: writing or commenting on a health-related blog, adding or responding to a topic in a forum or group, or creating health related web pages, videos or audio content; used online patient support groups, message boards, chatrooms, or blogs.

"The United States is far behind other countries when it comes to health care," Deb Levine (Founder, ISIS), told the audience this week at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, CA.

"One of the United Nations development mandates is to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as much as possible to move countries forward in their development. [But] because of the economic split in the U.S. between the small percentage of ultra wealthy and the large numbers of folks in need, Americans need ICT for health care just like folks in Africa, Asia and Latin America," she said.

In the middle of one of the worst economic crises experienced by the US, Health 2.0 Advisor Jane Sarasohn-Kahn confirmed today that US citizens are not as focused on heath care as they were a year ago.

"Twelve months ago," Jane Sarasohn-Kahn said, "the most important things on American voters' minds were the war and health care. Two days ago, the most important thing on American voters' minds is the economy. Health care and the war have taken a backseat."

This doesn't mean however, that health care plays second fiddle to the attendees of the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week - it's still their driving force. The rules of engagement however, as Clay Shirky pointed out in his keynote on Wednesday, are changing.

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, considers Health 2.0 to be the new economics of aggregation - both information and people.

Speaking to a standing-room-only audience at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this morning, Shirky explained that in going forward, we must focus on three things: information, co-ordination and collaboration. The idea expands on his recent article Health Information Technology: A Few Years Of Magical Thinking? (with Carol Diamond), which warns the health care IT establishment against the dangers of "magical thinking."

Last week we reported on an interview that health blogger Amy Tenderich carried out with Google Health's Missy Krasner. Amy has followed up with an interview with Keith Toussaint, Senior Program Manager with Microsoft HealthVault.

As we shall see, the two tech rivals - Google and Microsoft - have much in common when it comes to their online health apps.

Leading health blogger Amy Tenderich has just posted an illuminating interview with Missy Krasner, Product Marketing Manager for Google Health. When Google Health was launched to the public in May, we at ReadWriteWeb gave it a tepid review. We concluded that Google Health was not much more than a glorified health search engine / portal. For example, there is little in the way of integration with health professionals - users need to import their own data into the service. We also raised questions about users comfort level in putting such personal data online. Tenderich's interview teases out some responses to those concerns.

Practice Fusion is a startup making waves in the health 2.0 market. The product is a free, web-based EMR (electronic medical record) system for physicians. It runs in the browser and has been marketed as a 'Google Apps for doctors', providing patient management, scheduling, secure email and more.

The business model is largely serving ads, which allows the product to be free - although users can pay $250 $100 per month for an ad-free version. The company has just announced it has signed up 1,300 medical professionals since launch in November of 2007 and is currently serving "more than a quarter million patients."

One of the most interesting aspects of Web 2.0 these days is how it's beginning to create change in 'the real world'. While geek-friendly apps like FriendFeed, Twitter and Google Reader get a lot of attention in our little world, there is a whole other world out there in which the Web is making a difference. One very important example is healthcare. Check out the video below. It's about diabetes in the Internet age, but its message is relevant to the entire healthcare industry.

Today Google announced the public availability of Google Health, after initially launching as a closed beta back in February. It is described as "a safe and secure way to collect, store, and manage [your] medical records and health information online" and is being positioned as a way for users to control their own medical records.

Google Health is a decent entry into the game-changing (and potentially hugely profitable) world of health 2.0. But in comparison with other health startups, Google Health has a limited scope and is not as innovative a service as we've come to expect from Google...

With 1.3 billion people on the web today it's a safe bet that at least a few of them have shared experiences and the promise of the web as a global support group is something that is finally being realized. There have been specialized web sites for specific ailments for as long as there has been a world wide web, covering everything from lung cancer to obesity to social anxiety to alcoholism. But over the past several years, a new breed of general social networks geared toward physical and mental health support has begun to emerge. These sites link people with shared medical experiences and allow them to support one another in difficult times. Below are ten web sites that fall into this new category of "support group 2.0."

One of the big trends in 2008 has been the emergence of what I call Semantic Apps - a kind of 'Web 2.0 Meets Semantic Web' app typified by startups like Twine, Hakia, Quintura, Powerset and others. Another growing trend is health 2.0, web-based health apps and services. What's interesting is that those two trends are crossing over, with semantic health search engines beginning to make an impact.

Two such apps to cross our desk lately were 1) CureHunter, which claims to be able to find cures for diseases using semantic technologies; and 2) Go3R, an app that claims to provide information transparency "for the prevention of animal testing".

Today's winning comment comes from Brad Garland, from our post Health Care at SXSW - Health Getting Hot With Tech Crowd. Brad asked an open question: "Why can't we do an OpenEMR system like we are doing for authentication (OpenID). Be able to transfer and control your medical record personally instead of having the doctors control it all?"

I'm all in favor of this, as my twitter musings this morning attest. The Web could be a prime enabler of giving the user (i.e. us!) control over our medical records.