Blog

Health 2.0 Day 1: Quick Review

Day 1 of the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week was the whirlwind that I had expected. Below is a quick snapshot of highlights from the day's events:

The folks from Google Health, Yahoo! Health, WebMD all agreed that "Trust" is an essential part of an online community and the exchange of information, essentially saying that information comes from trust, and trust cannot be forced by simply pushing information.

Michael Yang (VP & GM Yahoo! Health) announced a collaboration with Healthgrades and will be getting into the healthcare provider search game.

Organized Wisdom announced that they are creating Provider 'Wisdom Cards' so consumers can learn more about their doctors.

West Shell, CEO of Healthline, had a nice demo of his health search site - he talked about their intelligent ad targeting and how they have built a taxonomy to make the ads more contextually relevant - When searching for "AAA" on a health site, think "Abdominal Aortic Aneurism," not flat tires.

Gilles Frydman, founder of ACOR (one of the first and still most widely used list serves for cancer and rare diseases) commented on how he felt that the 'Double Blind, Placebo Controlled' study for cancer patients was finished. He said that communities of patients share information during trials and quickly figure out who is taking what based on their symptoms and side effects.

Anna-Lisa Silvestre VP Online Services, Anna-Lisa Silvestre, VP Online Services, Kaiser Permanente talked about their recent EMR rollout to the entire Southern California Kaiser Network (about 12,000 Providers). She also talked about total transparency and access to the medical record by their patients as well. I am a bit concerned with patients having an unfiltered view of certain parts of their medical record (specifically labs and other diagnostic studies - the results can be easily misinterpreted.)

And finally, a special talk about end of life care - this has always been a hot topic in medicine and one of my special interests. Being prepared is a blessing that you can bestow upon your loved ones. Please have a look at this site, Engagewithgrace.org and consider adding it to your presentations, discussions, and encounters you have with friends, family, and colleagues.

Jason Bhan, MD Co-Founder, Ozmosis