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April 24, 2008

The Wisdom of Patients - Social Media In Health Care

By Jane Sarasohn Khan

Wisdomofpatients_2 People -- citizens, patients, caregivers, "consumers" -- are early adopters of social media in health, compared to other industry stakeholders including providers, plans, payers, and suppliers such as pharmas and medical equipment companies.

This is but one of many findings in my report, The Wisdom of Patients, which was published yesterday by the California HealthCare Foundation.

The report covers the origins of social media in the morphing of Web 1.0 to 2.0; the current state of social media in health; business models, opportunities and obstacles; a glimpse into the fuzzy future of Health 2.0; and, profiles several of the most pioneering figures in health/social media including Amy Tenderich of DiabetesMine; Matthew Zachary of the I'm Too Young For This! Foundation; Jack Barrette, founder of WEGO Health and formerly with Yahoo! Health; Neal Sofian of Resolution Health; Dan Hoch, MD, of the Harvard Medical School; and, Ben Heywood, CEO of PatientsLikeMe.

Jane's Hot Points: So many people informed this report. I interviewed over 30 people to listen to a broad range of perspectives, and benefited from the peer review of people like Matthew Holt, Scott Shreeve, and Dmitriy Kruglyak. I thank them all. I am fortunate to have had the California HealthCare Foundation sponsor this research. They are a visionary organization that supports and celebrates new thinking in health, particular in the area of patient self-care and technology.

I look forward to learning from THCB readers' own perspectives on this topic. Please comment on this blog and we can have ongoing dialogue here on the present and future of social media in health.

April 24, 2008 in Health 2.0 | Permalink

Comments

Thanks so much for blogging about this!

I read through the report and found it very interesting. It confirms the trend I've noticed online the past few years.

Health 2.0 and social networking presents an exciting future for health and health care. There is a huge potential for people to use the services to their advantage and for us to grow collective knowledge.

Thanks again.

Posted by: Billy | Apr 24, 2008 3:49:13 PM

It is so true - regular people are the early adopters. They are becoming more involved in their health care by researching conditions and providers. I think this is a positive step in the effort to improve health care.

Posted by: Barbara | Apr 27, 2008 10:04:51 AM

Interesting post.

Steve
http://www.careconverge.com

Posted by: Steve | Apr 27, 2008 7:01:31 PM

In Europe, a lot of Direct to Consumer-DTC-advertising is limited if even allowed in different European Union Member States. As a result, more and more Europeans are going online where technically legal "pull" sites (rather than the so-called "push" sites that constitute DTC)provide information about medical goods and services that consumers can purchase themselves. As dissatisfaction with public health systems increases in certain areas in Europe, more and more goods and services are found online by European as well as US consumers.

Posted by: Linda Margaret | Apr 28, 2008 1:59:09 AM

A related link I think everyone will find interesting.

www.wheretofindcare.com/blog.aspx

Posted by: WTFC | Apr 28, 2008 12:08:22 PM

Great article. I just did a post on "Social Media For Health Care Professionals" Would love your opinion.

http://blog.business-bits.com/?p=12

Thanks so much,

Jim

Posted by: Jim Farrell | Sep 11, 2008 6:04:59 PM

Health care social networks are the ravolutionary step towards the better health condition and one of the best use of the internet.

Posted by: vitiligo | Oct 11, 2008 2:43:59 AM

This report is an amazing accomplishment - the only better way to learn about the field is to hire Jane to meet with you. Do it.

Posted by: Jack Barrette | Nov 11, 2008 5:56:08 AM

Health social medias very useful thing specially for the patients of such disease which treatment take too long time like skin condition vitiligo and other such pigmentation disorder.Through Health social networks site patients share their experience with each other.

Posted by: anne | Dec 19, 2008 1:41:54 AM

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