Named as one of Twenty Blogs Thematically Related to Patient Destiny
February 23, 2007
On the Patient Destiny blog, The Path to Patient Empowerment, my blog was named of one of the top 20 blogs related to this theme. Kevin Leonard, of Toronto, has established this blog to bring into focus the empowerment issues and is citing some of the blogs which address this theme regularly. He is also promoting the Improve-IT Institute which includes conferences, books and other resources. A nice find.
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Steve Case on Good Morning America
February 22, 2007
On his blog, Steve comments on his appearance on this mainstream morning show. He seems irritated with Tim Johnson’s old school approach. A video of the interview is posted on YouTube. He believes in a mix of standard medical information from trusted sources (Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic) and social networking. Some skepticism of the interviewers on personal health records brought him back to his consumer advocacy stance – he wants the consumer to be in charge of their health information. He really wants to jumpstart change in health care, and his is one of the strongest Web 2.0 approaches in health care yet.
Share this:More on Web 2.0 in Health Care
February 22, 2007
In a post from December on Connected For Health Discussion Forum, Sally Lakeman from Australia asks some provocative questions:
- “Using social networking tools, is it possible for us to deliver health solutions that encourage the patient to actively participate in an online environment?
- Can we create an online space where people can not only manage their conditions but are encouraged to create, participate and collaborate in driving online health applications?”
Some interesting comments follow including an emphasis on the need for secure data exchange (from Web 2.0 technologies?) and the fact that these technologies will consume us in the health care professions rather than us consuming them.
Still more questions and hypotheses than answers.
Share this:Wall Street Journal on Social Bookmarking
February 21, 2007
In a rare move, the WSJ posted a free article last week on this topic. It’s a good review of all the major sites – Digg, Del.icio.us, and others and their potential business models including being purchased by the big internet portals.
Some choice quotes on the debate about their future:
“Though these sites are undeniably popular, there’s ongoing debate about whether the model of filtering content through voting ultimately will pose a challenge to traditional media. Some say the voting-site approach can more quickly distill what’s important for busy readers.”
“But critics say it’s simply an aggregate of borrowed content and links to a relatively small pool of blogs. And while they sometimes drive traffic to Web sites that are spotlighted, the spike can be temporary. “Influence implies that I can change your mind and they’re not necessarily doing that,” says Duncan Watts, a professor of sociology at Columbia University.”
But the question remains, is even temporary influence in the Internet world a real event? Is the definition of influence shifting in Web 2.0? What does this mean for healthcare? As I have said before, social networking and tagging in health care is at the early stages and may sort out in the next 6-12 months.
Also, check out this comment by if:book
Share this:Just Got Published
February 20, 2007
In a project during flu season, I worked with our Infection Control Practitioners on this: “Novel use of the intranet to document health care personnel participation in a mandatory influenza vaccination reporting program” published in the February issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. With coauthors including our Chief Nursing Officer and one of our Infectious Disease physicians, this study shows how to measure if not encourage hospital employees to get a flu shot. In spite of some difficulties in analyzing the data, 89% of the health system employees participated in the Intranet questionnaire about their decision on the vaccine.
Share this:3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies Conference
February 19, 2007
This conference on June 28-30, 2007 in Lansing, Michigan, has posted a call for abstracts. The workshops will focus on communication between providers and patients including recent research as well as looking forward to future uses of communication in healthcare. Abstracts are due March 30. Communication themes are broadly defined which will stimulate discussion on current and future technologies. While not explicitly citing Web 2.0, it certainly sounds like they are interested in online communities including such topics as community informatics and communityware.
Share this:Public Reporting and Transparency
February 15, 2007
In a new report from the Commonwealth Group, the lack of transparency in health care is addressed in detail. They note that public reporting of outcomes will:
- inject competition in health care
- help providers benchmark against each other
- encourage insurors to reward quality and efficiency
- help consumers make informed choices.
They also note that public reporting adds value but must be designed carefully.
I might add that consumers need education on how to interpret health outcomes since there are currently many ways to report outcomes.
Overall, I recommend reading at least the executive summary.
Share this:Web 3.0 – Hype or Reality
February 14, 2007
Now that the concept of Web 2.0 has been around for a while (in internet time), there is a growing buzz about 3.0. The Web 3.0 blog delivers a manifesto on the next level – the semantic web where Artificial Intelligence agents go beyond Web Services “…with the help of artificial intelligence and the integration of The Human Computing Layer, will allow us to cooperatively solve a class of problems normally reserved for specialized applications found in the areas of complex pattern recognition and high level semantic analysis.”
Heady stuff. Yet worth considering for healthcare. Intelligent agents and semantics (or taxonomy) is essential in taking ehealth to the next level. With all the advantages of Web 2.0 tagging and social networks, the volume of data is exploding and we need agents to semantically organize our knowledge whether it is about a personal illness or condition or one we are research a treatment for.
Share this:Social Networking Enabling Healthcare via Web 2.0
February 13, 2007
Jack Mason on the IBM Healthnex blog discusses the potential for social networking in healthcare with possibilities like using tools inherent in Digg.com and Google and others, to become “a mother-of-all-healthcare-data mashup unlock the molecular basis of diseases, it could also function as a global biosurveillance system, so that we could better predict, track and thwart outbreaks of infectious diseases or pandemics.” One could accuse Jack of hyperbole but it is true that the potential for social networking in healthcare has yet to be fully realized.
He also notes a new Web 2.0 term, new to me at least, “Maybe what we learn from Web 2.0 about collective intelligence and crowdsourcing in other spheres will help us get over the cultural hurdles that might impede a global network for electronic healthcare innovation.” Crowdsourcing is defined as a business model dependent on volunteers and low paid amateurs. Sounds like linux, Firefox or even Wikipedia. What is the potential for crowdsourcing in healthcare?
Share this:Does the Silicon First-Mover Status apply to Healthcare IT?
February 11, 2007
The New York Times reports today on “When it comes to Innovation, Geography is Destiny“, citing examples like Apple’s iPod and Google Seach as examples of technology developed elsewhere but became successful in Silicon Valley. The primary reason – face-to-face meetings with developers, entrepreneurs and venture firms. But is this true for Healthcare IT. Some new Web 2.0 initiatives have emerged from that zip code, most notably, Revolution Health and Healthline.com. And Google is looking at the health care market. But to date, the majority of EMRs and other eHealth tools to date have been developed throughout the US and internationally. Perhaps the next stage of innovation in Health IT will emerge out of Web 2.0 startups in Mountain View or from existing firms there.
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