Healthcare and Emerging Rich Web Technologies
In this post on the European site, OBBeC, subtitled, "The WEB 2.0/Semantic Web Challenge and Opportunity"
gives a good overview of Web 2.0 in health care. It describes both how social networking and semantic technologies are an opportunity and a caution for health care. He notes that adoption of these web technologies is slower than in other industries because "the care process is fundamentally more complex" in health care. There are the usual concerns about privacy but also health care's dependence on a face-to-face process. The driving forces of Web 2.0 in health care are seen as the need to aggregate the volumes of information physicians must wade through and the "power patients" becoming more commonplace.
Three specific semantic technologies are noted:
The author cautions that these technologies could lead to "over reliance on external information, a process of disintermediation between patients and healthcare professionals and erosion of the patient-physician relationship."
Technorati: Health 2.0
gives a good overview of Web 2.0 in health care. It describes both how social networking and semantic technologies are an opportunity and a caution for health care. He notes that adoption of these web technologies is slower than in other industries because "the care process is fundamentally more complex" in health care. There are the usual concerns about privacy but also health care's dependence on a face-to-face process. The driving forces of Web 2.0 in health care are seen as the need to aggregate the volumes of information physicians must wade through and the "power patients" becoming more commonplace.
Three specific semantic technologies are noted:
- semantic wikis
- semantic blogs
- semantic desktop
The author cautions that these technologies could lead to "over reliance on external information, a process of disintermediation between patients and healthcare professionals and erosion of the patient-physician relationship."
Technorati: Health 2.0
Thanks for pointing this out...while I see the author's point, I would like to argue that, in some cases, web 2.0 and 3.0 in the health care industry can provide users/patients with a wealth of information that their providers cannot supply (and not at a detriment to the patient/pcp relationship). Take rVita.com for example. This site is an up and coming web 2.0 alternative medicine portal. The truth is, there is no other place where individuals who are seeking alternative treatment for their chronic conditions can go to research their condition, find an effective remedy, connect with an appropriate CAM provider and others with similar conditions or experiences. There is also nowhere else that a PCP can go to research options for patients who come to them with questions about alternative treatment. It is arguable that a site such as this does not create a gap between patients and providers, but rather, can actually bring patients and providers together to find an effective treatment.
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