Health 2.0 Update - Monday 9/29/08

A heads up for THCB readers - if you're thinking of attending Health 2.0 and still haven't signed up for your pass, you may want to think about acting now. Our last two events sold out well in advance and we are again closing in on a sellout. Only about 100 passes remain. Reserve yours today. 

AGENDA ADDS:

Vita Cassese, VP, Worldwide Business Innovation, Pfizer

Scott Heimes SVP, Consumer Solutions, OptumHealth

Adam Bosworth, CEO, Keas

The WALL STREET JOURNAL'S Chris Lawton will interview athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush for the three Health 2.0 CEO's panel on Tuesday. Brought to you by Johnson + Johnson.

Michael Millenson will interview Healthgrades CEO Kerry Hicks

Ex-WSj'er David Hamilton will interview Sermo CEO Daniel Palestrant.

EDELMAN will unveil the Edelman Health Engagement Barometer -- new findings from a landmark global study defining New Health Info-entials, what their health hot buttons are, and how and where they want companies and brands to engage with them.

UPDATES: We welcome our latest sponsors - Medical Marketing & Media, RelayHealth, Navigenics, Silverlink Communications and OptumHealth.

MEANWHILE: Esther Dyson talked recently to the Organized Wisdom Blog about why she's an active investor in Health 2.0 companies, including PatientsLikeMe, Organized Wisdom and 23andMe.

"The thing that excites me the most." Dyson told OWB "is all the research and discoveries that are being made around genetic information. That's just part of something even broader, which is – there's gonna be a lot more information available. We'll be able to understand the impact of treatments, and the relation between treatments, conditions, environment...We're gonna know a ton more."

Dyson had this to say about the evolution of health search, considered by many observers to be the key economic driver of the online healthcare business ... "right now you're reading a lot about behavioral targeting of advertising; the notion is: You track someone's behavior online, you collect a lot of data and you can show them more relevant ads. Imagine if, instead of tracking someone online without them necessarily knowing, you could ask someone, "Will you give us your health information?"

"Then, instead of showing you more relevant ads, we can also show you more relevant content. And ideally, there's a difference between, "Oh, this guy goes to the travel site, let's show him an airline ad,".... and the guy who, in some form, tells the system, "Oh, I'm traveling to Paris next week," and you can show him an offer for 20 percent off on a flight to Paris. That is not targeting, that’s actual personalization of the message to the person's specific circumstances...."