The Health Care Blog

Decoding “The Social Life of Health Information”

By SUSANNAH FOX The Pew Internet/California HealthCare Foundation report, The Social Life of Health Information, is packed with new findings from a survey of 2,253 adults, including 502 cell-phone interviews, conducted in either English or Spanish. We spent a bundle...
June 16, 2009 in Online Communities, Susannah Fox, Technology | Permalink | Comments (7)

The Right to Share

By JAMIE HEYWOOD We do not live our lives alone. We live our lives in collaboration with others. We communicate our needs and our goals, and together we work to achieve them. This is exceptionally true for families and individuals...
June 15, 2009 in Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (8)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT: Part 3 -- Certification As The Elephant in Health IT's Living Room

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER In the first and second parts of this series we talked about how and why there is no universal definition for the term "EHR." Instead there is a legitimate, growing debate about the...
May 8, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Obama administration, Online Communities, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (20)

Health 2.0's impact on the digital divide

By Gilles Frydman For too many years, I've witnessed the same thing. First, it was in the ACOR system. Then it occurred in many conferences about eHealth, e-Patients, and now Health 2.0 and the Connected Health symposium at Harvard Medical...
November 11, 2008 in e-patients, Health 2.0, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (7)

Pumped up findings: Do publishing practices distort science?

By Sarah Arnquist The credibility of scientific journals and the findings has come under attack multiple times this month via accusations of unethical editing and artificially pumped up findings. PloS Medicine -- an open-access journal -- published an essay suggesting...
October 23, 2008 in Health 2.0, Online Communities, public health | Permalink | Comments (2)

An Impending Hanging: Will Health 2.0 Be Compromised By The Economic Downturn?

By Brian Klepper Nothing focuses the mind like an impending hanging. -- Samuel Johnson I've been preparing for tomorrow's 3rd Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where I'll join my pals Matthew, Indu Subaiya, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn and Michael Millenson amid...
October 21, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, evidenced-based medicine, Health 2.0, Online Communities, Quality, The Industry, Transparency, User Generated Content, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (3)

Do you have an Avatar?

By Robin Strongin THCB Note: This post first appeared at The Disruptive Women in Health Care Blog. There's lots more great posts. Check it out! If you don’t have an avatar, you may want to seriously think about creating one....
October 17, 2008 in Online Communities, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Health: Is It Good For You?

By AMY TENDERICH Note: Amy Tenderich, who writes and maintains the wonderful Diabetes Mine, just did this very illuminating interview with Google Health's Missy Krassner. As you'll see, she doesn't slow-pitch to Missy. This is a sure-footed, tough-minded exchange about...
October 7, 2008 in Google, Health 2.0, Marketplace, Online Communities, Privacy, Quality, Technology, The Industry, User Generated Content, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (2)

Everyday Health & Revolution Health merger staying in 1.0

By Joshua Seidman Joshua Seidman is the president of of the Center for Information Therapy that aims to provide the timely prescription and availability of evidence-based health information to meet individuals’ specific needs and support sound decision making. Everyday Health...
October 7, 2008 in Health 2.0, Joshua Seidman, Online Communities, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (9)

Adam Bosworth speaks about Google Health, Keas and everything

By Matthew Holt After a long period of time I’ve finally wrestled Adam Bosworth to the floor and forced the microphone to his mouth. Adam of course is the software guru (he’s one of the originators of XML) who went...
September 3, 2008 in Consumers, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Google, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Online Communities, Technology, User Generated Content | Permalink | Comments (2)

Health 2.0 for cancer trials

By Greg Pawelski Greg is well known to THCB readers as a long term commentator on the oncology scene with a keen interest in chemotherapy assay testing. Here he writes about a new type of clinical trial -- Matthew Holt...
August 14, 2008 in Health 2.0, Online Communities, Personalized Medicine | Permalink | Comments (7)

Google Health and the PHR: Do Consumers Care?

By Keith Schorsch Google Health’s unveiling last week and Microsoft’s HealthVault launch last October are important milestones in the evolution of Health 2.0. Both of these heavyweights have the resources and potential to improve the health consumer’s customer experience. I...
July 1, 2008 in Consumers, Google, Health 2.0, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (28)

Diabetes reloaded

By THCB Staff To mark the advancements and ongoing journey in diabetic care DiabetesMine, an online community and resource for diabetics, created this video. The theme, Diabetes Reloaded, stands for "redefining not only the role of technology in managing chronic...
June 22, 2008 in Health 2.0, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (0)

Podcast with Marston Alfred, founder and architect of SugarStats

By Jen McCabe Gorman Marston Alfred, founder and chief architect of SugarStats.com chatted recently with me about his relatively new, Web-based program that allows diabetics to track their health statistics online. Alfred described SugarStats as a portable PHR specifically for...
June 10, 2008 in e-patients, Health 2.0, Online Communities, Personalized Medicine, Podcasts | Permalink | Comments (0)

E-patients can and will revolutionize health care

By Susannah Fox By taking advantage of new online health tools, e-patients and health professionals now have the ability to create equal partnerships that enable individuals to be equipped, enabled, empowered and engaged in their health and health care decisions....
May 30, 2008 in e-patients, Health 2.0, Online Communities, Personalized Medicine, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (18)

Analyzing the benefits of PatientsLikeMe social network site

By John Grohol Two research papers were published this month on the Health 2.0 Web site, PatientsLikeMe. PatientsLikeMe is arguably the only "real" health social network online today, because it allows patients to share actual data that matters with one...
May 30, 2008 in e-patients, Health 2.0, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (5)

Humana's competition for change

By Jen McCabe Gorman Health benefits heavyweight Humana Inc. (HUM – 11.5M members) recently launched ChangeNow4Health, an ambitious, optimistic coalition inviting anyone to submit ideas to fix America’s ailing health care system. The top three entries receive a $10k prize,...
May 20, 2008 in Consumers, Health Plans, Online Communities, Policy | Permalink | Comments (5)

iMedix: Social search that creeps me out

By Craig Stoltz Oh, geez. Deb21 wants to chat again. Here I am, trying to look up some information about tinnitus – a.k.a. ringing in the ears, a condition which has recently afflicted a member of my family – and...
May 13, 2008 in Craig Stoltz, Health 2.0, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (4)

Medical Privacy: The Challenge of Behavioral Ad Targeting in Healthcare

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn The latest piece in the medical privacy jigsaw puzzle is online behavioral advertising. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received comments from the Network Advertising Initiative NAI on the agency's proposed principles for OBA. As part...
April 16, 2008 in Online Communities, Privacy | Permalink | Comments (4)

Health 2.0: Weighing In With a Reality Check

By Michael Millenson Maybe you saw the article: “Health 2.0 Helps, But Personal Contact Remains Top Weight Loss Strategy.” OK. I made up the headline. But the information comes from an article that provides food for thought for those of...
March 21, 2008 in Health 2.0, Obesity, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (5)

Mother-Power Online

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn 4 in 5 moms go online at least once a month, according to My Mommy's Online. The report is based on 2007 data from Simmons Consumer Research Survey published by eMarketer. "Being a parent makes going online...
March 21, 2008 in Consumers, Health 2.0, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (2)

Web Video Statistics: I Smell a Rat by Craig Stoltz

Craig Stoltz is a web consultant working in the health 2.0 space. He has previously served as health editor for the Washington Post and editorial director of Revolution Health. He blogs at Web 2.0 ... Oh really? The web metrics...
February 16, 2008 in Craig Stoltz, Online Communities | Permalink | Comments (3)