Posts Tagged ‘Health 2.0’
Google Health Presented at HIMSS
February 29, 2008
Eric Schmidt and Roni Zeiger presented Google Health at a keynote session at HIMSS in Orlando this morning.
Key points included:
- it’s the consumer’s data, the user has control
- it needs to have ease of use – the user interface must be immediately useful
- the benefit of consumer interoperability is significant
- cloud computing will allow the storage of medical records including large files like images, “easy” to accomplish for Google (200 petabytes of xrays per year not a problem)
- adoption of new consumer products are typically 5% the first year but 80-90% in 10 years
- developers are invited to create new tools around the platform of Google Health. How about child immunization records, managing the health information and medication for your elderly parent in another state.
With this kind of optimism, could adoption exceed expectations?
Share this:
Microsoft, Google and Revolution Health – Transforming Health Care?
February 23, 2008
In a post by Bill Crounse of Microsoft, he takes an open attitude about the Google Health announcement this week by presenting a “more the merrier” outlook. “Transforming healthcare is an incredibly complex challenge – one which no single organization can solve alone.” Microsoft’s HealthVault, Google’s new PHR aggregator and Revolution Health’s tool set for health care all contribute to what indeed may be a revolution. In two weeks, the second Health 2.0 conference will occur – another opportunity to add to the online tools consumers are coming to expect in health care as they have in many other industries already.
Next question – will you be able to use all 3 sites to manage your health without going to each separately? Or do you have to choose one to manage your health?
Share this:Texting4Health – a conference
February 8, 2008
Received this via a blog comment; Sounds like another first of its kind like the Health 2.0 Conference.
———————————–
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of eHealth Marketing is cosponsoring the Texting4Health Conference: Using SMS to Motivate Behavior Change with Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab. BJ Fogg, PhD, with Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab, is leading the conference agenda development.
Texting4Health Conference: Using SMS to Motivate Behavior Change
www.texting4health.org
February 28-March 1, 2008
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Friday, February 29, 2008 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
“Texting 4 Health” (the main event)
Over 20 experts in health, behavior change, and mobile technology will share their insights in 10-minute presentations and follow-up panels.
www.texting4health.org/ or contact BJ Fogg at bjfogg@stanford.edu
More Details…
The Texting4Health conference will showcase applications, ideas, insights on the use of mobile text messaging (SMS) in areas of public health such as: early warning systems for communicable disease, smoking cessation, diabetes management, reproductive health, locators for HIV testing, weight management, physical activity, teen health, privacy in
the domain of sexual health information, enhanced patient-doctor relationship via reminders, efficient delivery of laboratory diagnostics, etc.
A Caution about Wikis from a Powerhouse blog
February 6, 2008
I just discovered the blog e-patient which includes an impressive list of contributors – Gilles Frydman of ACOR.org, the cancer support site, Susannah Fox from pewinternet.org, and others. Gilles writes in a recent post, “A Cautionary Tale about Wikis.” He cites the article in Scientific American on “Science 2.0: Great New Tool, or Great Risk? — more on that later, and beta version of Elsevier offering Wiserwiki. While applauding their efforts, he also raises some concerns: that they should address in order to be successful:
- a better understanding of the motivations of healthcare professionals to give their time (the commodity they lack most)
- the creation of editorial policies specific to this new publishing paradigm
- many other management issues that will appear over time.
One other note is the issue of Wikispam which this open format can make itself vulnerable to.
In addition, check out the white paper on “e-Patients: How They Can Help Us Heal Healthcare” available as a free pdf or as a wiki.
Share this:One of the Best Interviews on Consumers and online Health
January 26, 2008
From iHealthbeat, there is an interview on “ Consumer Demand Fueling Online Health Care Market” which is an interview with Val Jones of Revolution Health. It is noted that on their site, the only generation gap is on medical topics but not on the level of interaction or use of tools. This is significant and debunks myths about the older generation’s lower participation in the web.
Also, the Time article by Dr. Haig is cited and his quote that, “the role of the expert is to know what to ignore” contrasted with the consumer who may not know what health information to ignore. How would we go about educating consumers on what to ignore, other than the usual buyer beware from snake oil salesman?
They also note that regarding physician blogs, “Very few medical bloggers write specifically for consumers.”
Retainer medicine (aka, boutique medicine?) is mentioned at the end of the article and the fact that these practices are likely to adopt ehealth tools at a faster rate.
Worth the read.
Share this:Patients Allow to Vent Online – Good or Bad?
January 24, 2008
On the theHealthCareScoop.com patients are encouraged to post their reactions to their physicians, providers and clinics. But what if health plans (Minnesota Blues and WellPoint) encourage these type of comments? Some physicians cry foul. In an article in the AMA News, a balanced reports looks at the pros and cons including the promise that comments will not affect reimbursement rates. However, it could be that it would affect business volume. Reading some of the comments on the site, there is good and bad. Some having very ugly experiences which lawyers would love to get their hands on, and others which love their doctors or clinics and strongly recommend them to others.
Except for the liability issues, I think this is a good thing. One questions – are these types of sites more likely to attract complainers?
Share this:Webinar on Web 2.0 in Health Care
January 22, 2008
I’ll be speaking on a webinar titled “ Emerging Trends” on February 13th sponsored by the Healthcare Intelligence Network. The other presenters are: Susan Reid, Internet marketing manager with UAB Health System and Dave Bennett, director of web resources services with Medical University of South Carolina. The preparation itself has been interesting. Will be a good opportunity to rethink my previous presentations in light of the Health 2.0 conference and more recent opportunities at work.
Share this:Web 2.0 comes to the Lab
January 3, 2008
myMedLab.com is a newish Web 2.0 venture which sells personal lab testing online. Described as “an innovative approach that dramatically lowered cost and gave consumers direct access to the same health information once only available to doctors”, the site offers lab tests in several categories. These include: basic, male and female wellness (metabolic and lipid profile among others), weight loss (bariatric panel), and individual tests (DNA and drug tests, for instance). The business model includes agreements with local labs and a zip code search to find them. Finally, there is a PHR to securely store your records of testing.
Overall, a comprehensive solution for direct-to-consumer lab testing. This could be a resource for those with health savings accounts to save some money provided that their doctor does not want a test repeated. The controversy about this kind of testing will continue, especially whether testing should only be ordered by those who can interpret the results. Or is this one of the last hold outs of paternalistic medicine?
Share this:Barriers to Health 2.0
December 13, 2007
According to part two of the series on Health 2.0 in Modern Healthcare, barrier to Health 2.0 include: an age gap (Health 2.0 appeals to a younger demographic) and privacy according to David Brailer. Privacy is a big concern because these sites are not covered by HIPAA and contain lots of private health information although one’s identity can be hidden. Even without creating an account in sites such as, PatientsLikeMe.com, one can view detail about symptom status and drugs for individuals with ALS, MS and Parkinsons. But this appears to be a trade off many patients are willing to take.
Can these site be hacked? Have they already? To what extent are they being using for targeted advertising?
One can only hope that users read the site usage policies before plunging into revealing their disease status.
Share this:How Broad is Health 2.0?
December 12, 2007
Scott Shreeve of Crossover Health takes a wider view as Health 2.0 addressing the crisis in health care today – “Health 2.0 has everything to do with outcomes, quality and healthcare reform.”
Health 2.0 has many facets and substantial potential for making changes in health care. Will it require market consolidation to have a real impact on healthcare reform? Or is it current volatile state how it will continue to manifest itself and still have an impact?
Share this: