Archive for 2008
AMIA Presentation on Web 2.0 for Clinical Decision Support
November 15, 2008
Of the many presentations at the American Medical Informatics Association, one was about the specific application of Web 2.0 technology to clinical decision support. Three examples were given:
- Clinfowiki – a wiki devoted to clinical informatics
- Partners HealthCare eRooms
- Epic Systems Corporation’s Community Library
Certainly, there are many other applications of Web 2.0 to medical informatics. Social networking needs to be exploited. Two examples are:
Perhaps AMIA itself should begin a social network for its members or around each conference like Medicine 2.0 has done.
Share this:PHR Presenations at AMIA
November 10, 2008
At the American Medical Informatics Association, there have been panels and papers on PHRs. This morning was a panel including John Halamka of Partners Healthcare and Roni Zeiger of Google Health discussing the different models – tethered, provider based, platforms, commercial based, etc. The Q & A provided some interesting insights, particularly a question about what to expect next – to take patient symptoms and conditions and then generate a selected list of questions to ask your doctor.
Coincidentally, there was an announcement by the Cleveland Clinic today (not on the panel) of a partnership with Microsoft HealthVault to collection information from home monitoriing devices and feed them through HealthVault into the MyChart PHR.
Another presentation was on consumer-based folksonomies within PatientLikeMe.com based on symptoms entered. Someone suggested that within these online communities, patients begin to approximate the physician taxonomy based on their desired to communicate effectively with their physicians.
Share this:Two More Articles on the Health 2.0 Conference
November 5, 2008
Neil Versel has written two articles from the conference which emphasize the optimistic outlook for Health 2.0 products.
The first quotes Robert Kolodner saying that Health 2.0 is in the early hype cycle. He also cited Enoch Choi of MedHelp who said that half of the panel last year on physician social networks are out of business but that the future is still bright, perhaps because the conference attracted 1000 attendees including many from mainline healthcare organizations and employers.
The second article is about Google Health and quotes Roni Zeiger who said that user feedback, much of which was from the pilot with the Cleveland Clinic, reflects enthusiasm for the product and the desire for more features. In discussing medication history, he said “Right now, Google Health’s role is “helping to build the pipes” for interoperable data exchange.” See also the recent announcement about Google Health’s deal with PatientAssistance.com to enable prescription assistance services from its PHR.
Share this:Building 100% in the Cloud
November 5, 2008
A new Web 2.0 company, Drop.io, has its infrastructure virtually through Amazon making it totally dependent on the Cloud for hosting. Are there pros and cons to this? They see mostly pros – highly available, meet unpredictable growth needs, limit startup expenses, treat storage like the commodity it is. They like the variable cost as a start up as opposed to fixed costs. Maybe there is a lesson for Health 2.0 startups here.
Share this:Health 2.0 Conference Interviews
November 2, 2008
A new group of video interviews from the conference have been posted on ICYou.com.
Included are a brief but articulate video on the state of Health 2.0 by Scott Shreve.
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of THINK-Health and the Health 2.0 Advisory Board, has a more extensive examination of the state of Health 2.0 and gives some specific examples of investments.
Will explore more of these videos in the next few days.
Share this:Another Summary of Health 2.0 Conference with Best Picks
October 30, 2008
Jen McCabe Gorman posts on the Health Management RX blog her favorites from the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Jen had the insider’s view having reviewed many of the demos prior to the conference. She cites 22 of her favorites and is not afraid to critique their weaknesses. One interesting quote: “We’re building killer apps that are springing forth from fertile VC and ad revenue soil like mushrooms and other nutrient, dark-loving fungi. But where’s the tree trunk they can all grow on?”
Also worth reading is her post on Health 2.0 Demo Tips, such as, don’t let your ego drive the presentation.
Share this:Medicine 2.0 Course in a University – a first
October 30, 2008
This course sound like a big success. Taught by Berci Mesko at University of Debrecen in Hungary, a photo of the class in it’s 5th week here. Course outline looks comprehensive. The course even has its own blog. This is probably one of the most publicly documented courses ever short of having the whole thing on video. Maybe next year.
This kind of material is an excellent introduction ot Medicine 2.0 for any group of health professionals. I hope more courses will be designed at nursing, medical and allied health schools around the world.
Share this:Health 2.0 Conference Followup
October 27, 2008
Although I did not attend, I have been catching up on blogs and Twitters from the conference last week. The most important comments come from Matthew Holt’s Healthcare Blog. Specifically, these two quotes:
“All of this leads to the underlying tension that Health 2.0 puts squarely on the table. Is the future of health care going to be led by self-organizing groups of patients and their representatives, or will it be dominated by technologically-extended versions of the major health care organizations who are now responsible for care delivery?”
“The question of market viability is of course one all those companies need to face. But in a health care system in which crazy bad behaviors and useless technologies are heavily rewarded every day, is it a bad thing to suggest that we need to change incentives so that tools which have the potential to so greatly improve patient experience are put on a level playing field? I think not.”
Also, here is a nice summary of the Microsoft HealthVault presentation with some screen shots. Gives a better idea of how their platform works.
Share this:Health 2.0 Advisors Launched
October 24, 2008
Some of the real thought leaders behind the Health 2.0 movement have joined forces to develop Health 2.0 Advisors:
- Matthew Holt, Brian Klepper, Michael L. Millenson, and Jane Sarasohn-Kahn.
They’ll offer industry reports, workshops and consulting services. Looks like a good package of services.
This in partnership with Edelman, a global communications firm. I wish them success.
As a side note, Health 2.0 got an article in the New York Times authored by ReadWriteWeb, titled, “Health 2.0: Rules of Engagement.” One quote: “Effective health engagement can build trust, and conversely, trust is the key to deeper engagement.”
Share this:Social Media Works
October 23, 2008
In a posting on WebScope, Marc Needham reports on “Whys Social Media Works.” Examples include companies monitoring Twitter to respond to customer complaints, companies like Scripps creating Facebook identities, others using YouTube for “Human Resources promotional material to physician interviews.” He sees the future as pursuing social media optimization and syndication opportunities rather than search engine optimization.
All organizations including health care organizations, need to join the social networking and Web 2.0 awareness and exploit these communication tools.
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