Health 2.0 Blog, Facebook Group & Wiki

One of my new year's resolutions is to cross-fertilize the myriad professional interests I've accrued in almost four years with IBM, including virtual worlds and 3D technologies, social computing and Web 2.0 trends, and of course, healthcare innovation via new technologies, models and practices.

So I hope I'm not wildly late in pointing folks to the very timely and important new initiative by Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, the Health 2.0 blog, Facebook group and wiki.

Here's an excerpt from the launch post in November, 2007:

"Welcome to The Health2.0 Blog

Since the Health 2.0 conference in September, the blogosphere has exploded with hundreds of blog posts from people all over the country and world. Among the myriad thought-provoking pieces on Health 2.0 have been contributions by Esther Dyson at the Huffington Post, David Kibbe,  Brian Klepper and Jane Sarasohn Kahn defining Health2.0, Amy Tenderich on DiabetesMine, Scott Shreeve on healthcare FICO scores, and many, many more. There’s been posts in lots of countries and several languages. Plus the opening video has been reposted and commented on in several places (usually with great compliments, but not always!)

Given the bits and pieces of interesting conversation on the Facebook group, the Health2.0 wiki, THCB and more, we decided to create a forum for our diverse and emerging community to convene and deepen the conversation. So with great fanfare…."

I hope I can encourage my IBM colleagues involved in both healthcare and related fronts of networked collaboration efforts to become part of this critical conversation. And will definitely strive to focus HealthNex in 2008 in this direction.

It's quite amazing how fast new fronts like this emerge...it was only a year ago that John Sharp of eHealth had taken the initiative to produce an eSession for HIMSS 2007 on Web 2.0 implications for healthcare. I was so swamped with 2.0-related work that my own contribution to the presentation was meager.

In any event, congrats to Matthew and Indu, and in the spirit of leveraging mass collaboration, I hope that all interested in this front will contribute to the blog, join the FB group and be part of what should become a true innovation movement.

 

Since the Health 2.0 conference in September, the blogosphere has exploded with hundreds of blog posts from people all over the country and world. Among the myriad thought-provoking pieces on Health 2.0 have been contributions by Esther Dyson at the Huffington Post, David Kibbe,  Brian Klepper and Jane Sarasohn Kahn defining Health2.0, Amy Tenderich on DiabetesMine, Scott Shreeve on healthcare FICO scores, and many, many more. There’s been posts in lots of countries and several languages. Plus the opening video has been reposted and commented on in several places (usually with great compliments, but not always!)

Given the bits and pieces of interesting conversation on the Facebook group, the Health2.0 wiki, THCB and more, we decided to create a forum for our diverse and emerging community to convene and deepen the conversation. So with great fanfare…."

I hope I can encourage my IBM colleagues involved in both healthcare and related fronts of networked collaboration efforts to become part of this critical conversation. And will definitely strive to focus HealthNex in 2008 in this direction.

It's quite amazing how fast new fronts like this emerge...it was only a year ago that John Sharp of eHealth had taken the initiative to produce an eSession for HIMSS 2007 on Web 2.0 implications for healthcare. I was so swamped with 2.0-related work that my own contribution to the presentation was meager.

In any event, congrats to Matthew and Indu, and in the spirit of leveraging mass collaboration, I hope that all interested in this front will contribute to the blog, join the FB group and be part of what should become a true innovation movement.

 

Comments

[William Hill]

Health 2.0 is derived from the term Web 2.0, which implies a 2nd generation/release of the Internet.

The '2.0' part was established within computer programming - as a new edition of a an application is released, it is common practice for the programmers to add an incrementing number at the end of a program's name, to label the new version.

Web 2.0 implies the '2nd release' of the Internet, which of course is not based on anything concrete. The Internet being made up of millions upon millions of interconnecting computers running lots of various programs, but is more of a concept to describe the type of programs/applications/functionality one can now locate on the Internet.

The Internet was initially complied of mainly static pages of data. Soon to follow was email, web forums and chat rooms where discussions could take place. Web 2.0 refers to a trend on the Internet that saw a step forward in the way users conduct communicate over the Internet, which includes the use of blogs, videos, podcasts, wikis and online communities where people with common interests get together to share ideas, media, code and all types of information.

Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking, blogs, patient communities and online tools for search and self-care management look as though they will permanently alter the healthcare landscape indefinitely.

As with Web 2.0, there is a lot of debate about the meaning of the term 'health 2.0'. The Wall Street Journal recently attempted to define Health 2.0 as:

“The social-networking revolution is coming to health care, at the same time that new Internet technologies and software programs are making it easier than ever for consumers to find timely, personalized health information online. Patients who once connected mainly through email discussion groups and chat rooms are building more sophisticated virtual communities that enable them to share information about treatment and coping and build a personal network of friends. At the same time, traditional Web sites that once offered cumbersome pages of static data are developing blogs, podcasts, and customized search engines to deliver the most relevant and timely information on health topics."

While this traditional view of the definition imputes it as the merging of the Web 2.0 phenomenon within healthcare. I personally believe it’s so much more. In my opinion, Health 2.0 goes way beyond just the permeant social networking technology to include a complete renaissance in the way that Healthcare is actually delivered and conveyed.

Source - www.rxpop.com

[Patricia Donovan]

This is so true..it is indeed a social revolution. As a publisher in the healthcare industry, we have been blogging and podcasting for several years. But after the Mayo Clinic, UAB Health System and the Cleveland Clinic told us how Web 2.0 and social networking sites ---particularly YouTube --- are changing how consumers choose providers and educate themselves about health issues, we decided to make our own video about their experiences called "Web 2.0 and Healthcare" and test these waters. You can see the video in our blog at http://blog.hin.com/?p=251 or on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko-sLX7QOak.