Archive for September, 2007
Project Health Design Blog
September 28, 2007
I came across the blog by the Project Health Design of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently. Besides taking note of the Health 2.0 conference, they have interesting posts on RFID PHRS, cell phone access to PHRs and others. A post from August discusses PHR fragmentation. This is certainly a persistent obstacle to adoption. The comments are equally enlightening – the need for connectivity, not more PHRs and perhaps connectivity enabled by xml.
This blog is worth monitoring by RSS – as is the content on the Project Health Design website itself – a portal for PHR information.
Share this:
More on Health 2.0 – How the Hairball Got Started
September 27, 2007
Someone early in the conference referred to the healthcare crisis as a hairball. Ethusiastic attendees are determined to find ways to get past the hairball or at least work on the edges. Modern Healthcare reports on this discussion as well as Matthew Holt’s (the conference organizer) statement that “Health 2.0 is just getting beyond the buzzword phase, The
next phase I see coming very rapidly is using tools and technology to connect people with providers.”
Another catch phrase at the conference was data liquidity, according to Neubert of Microsoft, “It’s about how do we connect those source data providers. I think that will be the first form of data liquidity.”
Others talked about how to move beyond content to personalized care.
Neil Versel notes another Matthew Holt perspective: “Holt defined a four-step continuum of health 2.0: user-generated content; users connecting to health care providers; formation of partnerships to reform delivery; and finally, data driving discovery. Most players in this segment are in one of the first two stages.”
And Google’s perspective represented by Missy Krasner: “Consumers are still having trouble sorting through what’s
trustworthy. They need a coach. They need a trusted coach.” Which led to more discussion of trust but in my opinion, not enough.
If Health 2.0 is going to affect the core of healthcare – the patient-provider relationship – trust and enbaling personalized care must be the top priorities.
Share this:More Blog Posts on the Health 2.0 Conference
September 25, 2007
- Neil Versel’s Healthcare blog has links to the vendors represented at the conference
- Esther Dyson summarizes what she said in the summary panel at the conference (one of the highlights of the conference for me was to meet Esther Dyson – by the way, she was recently on Charlie Rose)
- A Google blog search will lead you to many more postings about Health 2.0 and the conference aftermath.
Health 2.0 Conference Summary – From the Consumer Perspective
September 25, 2007
One of the most articulate summaries of the Health 2.0 conference is by Amy Tenderich, Blogger/Journalist DiabetesMine. She sees real positive outcomes of this movement, especially for diabetics. She cites Google’s Missy Krasner as saying “it’s not enough for that company to build safe place for online medical records; people have to be able to DO something with these records. The records have to be actionable, and as yet, they’re still “a long way from delivering the value that consumers want” in health.”
She also notes the importance of social networks in chronic illness and the essential role of trust.
Share this:Health 2.0 Viral Enthusiasm and Cash Value
September 25, 2007
On the HealthcareIT Blog, Jack Beaudoin reports on some of the rock and roll enthusiasm of the Health 2.0 conference which he readily compares with the dot com boom but with a caveat. The value of the products, whether social networking or search, must be associated with real value that translates into cash value.
The creative ideas on these sites have been successfully launched but must generate cash with a viable business plan to survive. They should attrach venture dollars but need longer term plans as well. I think there were people in the room who could do this and hope that they will succeed.
Share this:Negative Take on Health 2.0 Conference Contrasts with Attendee Enthusiasm
September 22, 2007
According to iHealthBeat, the San Jose Mercury News took away from the conference the concern about the lack of solid business models for many of the products presented at the conference. While it is true that AdSense cannot be the only income source for these startups, some have more diverse business models. However, the confernce did not intend to focus on the business models, it was presenting the state of the art in this new business sector.
Perhaps the next conference on Health 2.0 being planned for March 2008, should have some sessions on successful business models including raising venture capital and longer term plans.
Share this:Health 2.0 Conference – Social Netwoks
September 20, 2007
In a session on social networking for health care, one of the conclusions was that physicians and pharma should monitor these sites as a way of understanding the patient experience including how they react to treatments. They should not necessarily participate, unless the site includes physician participation, such as, medhelp.org, but just monitor these sites. Of course this applies to all medical professionals.
The sites presented were:
- sophiasgarden.org
- PatientsLikeMe.com
- DailyStrength.org
- OrganizedWisdom.com
- Inspire.com
- MedHelp.org
- Diabetesmine.com
Health 2.0 – First Session – Are Physicians Marginalized in Health 2.0?
September 20, 2007
I am writing from the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. In the first session, a panel of Google, Yahoo, WebMD and Microsoft, the question was asked, Are physicians marginalized in Health 2.0?
The response was that all of these products serve physicians as well as patients/consumers. Most notibly WebMD with Medscape. Yet it was acknowledged that the effect of the the Internet on the patient-provider relationship – physicians are confronted with this on a daily basis and also frequently provide websites to their patients. But medical practice with its briefer and briefer encounters and financial pressures, does not enable an interactive discussion of internet health content.
Perhaps new models enabled by Web 2.0 will provide a bridge from the exam room to the Internet health.
Share this:Return of Dossia
September 18, 2007
According to an article on iHealthbeat, Children’s Hospital Informatics Program has been hired to restart this project of a life-long medical record sponsored by major corporations. Dossia ran into problems with its first vendor as was reported extensively. ”
Among the appeal of Children’s Hospital’s Indivo to Dossia is that the open source system provides control over health record data.” Will they be able to scale it up for the more than 2.5 million U.S. employees, retirees, and dependents? Time will tell but teaming up with a system which is associated with a provider may be a wise move.
Share this:A New Spin on Social Networking for Physicians
September 17, 2007
Anyone out there using iMedExchange? It certainly has a Web 2.0 look about it. Includes not only videos, blogs and career opportunities but encourages exchanges between physicians on practice management, clinical issues and some personal issues, such as, vacations. It designed and supported by a team of Seattle-based technology, business and healthcare experts and is advertising for regional network physicians to promote online meetings.
Looks like an inviting concept. It joins a growing field of sites similar to Sermo.
Share this: