What is Health 2.0?

Health 2.0 is the evolution of healthcare as a result of consumer empowerment. Its definition ranges from ‘applied Web 2.0 technology to healthcare’ to ‘the next generation healthcare delivery’.

It includes the technology that enables users to generate relevant information and share it in virtual venues like blogs, mash-ups, social networking, digital publishing, wikis etc. hence participating more effectively in their own healthcare.

It helps develop virtual relationships and collaboration, and in the process shift the paradigm from cost to value, from disease-care to health-care, hence making the physician as our Healthcare Advisor and the patient as an Informed Consumer.

Health 2.0 is happening now; according to the Economist:

• About 33M (of 100M people online ) have found significantly helpful health information on the internet
• 20% of internet users have created some health-related content
• The accuracy of information of many patient user communities is very high: 2004 BMJ study showed only 6% inaccurate information posted at popular on-line Neurology site
• The American Cancer Society found that inaccurate information was typically rooted out and expunged within 2 hours of posting on average
• Internet’s ability to organize hundreds of patients with rare disease efficiently helps with the diagnosis and treatment of illness earlier, with unprecendented explosion of medical knowledge

So let us play and explore the vast possibilities of this revolution in the healthcare industry, that is Health 2.0… 

Archana Dubey, MD