How are Web 2.0 technologies changing healthcare? What are the implications of trends like cloud-based computing for major healthcare players like pharma companies and large health systems? What about mobile computing? What are the practical implications for providers? What can healthcare providers learn from like dominant Web 2.o players like Google? Silicon Valley legend Tim O’Reilly (The Web 2.0 conference, O’Reilly publishing) gives an overview in this keynote from this years Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco in October.
Filed Under: Health 2.0
Dec 17, 2010
Interesting comments about Health 2.0. This also really applies to physicians as well. We all use it already. Today I received a pilot program CR 48 Notebook from Google. It is amazingly functional, simple and easy to use. Took all of 10 seconds to bootup just by opening the lid. All the talk of HIT and HIE and worries of interoperability goe up in smoke when you think about a system in the cloud for the entire country based upon a web browser OS such as chrome or any other web browser for that matter. Imagine one EMR that functions in multiple offices, and hospitals !! It simplifies it enormously for the poor working doctors who now have to interface with a non human participant in the doctor – patient equation. I have discussed this today on Health Train Express (blog)
Excellent overview. Raises many issues that I think are missed in the discussion of Web 2.0 technologies without overdoing the Kool-Aid.
Meanwhile, interesting findings from the Oxford-style debate on Health 2.0 over at the Economist.
The question: “This house believes that any loss of privacy from digitising health care will be more than compensated for by the welfare gains from increased efficiency.”
63% of readers voted no. 37% of readers voted yes.
Are these numbers an accurate reflection of the views of Economist readers or do they suggest an effort to “get out of the vote” by privacy advocates.
I’m not sure.
and the link:
http://www.economist.com/debate/debates/overview/189
This is a powerful vision describing the wholly new definition for “connectivity,” which once just assumed humans as the connected objects. But the intelligence of the computational power that will be massaging the data, from whatever the source, will move further and further away from human intelligence and thus other human attributes that distract from efficiency, like judgment.
Will predictive analytics deliver choices only? Or will the resulting actionable data be fed into an action app geared to the process in question? Will the constant data stream from the sensors attached to a bedridden patient create an action that delivers just the right dosage for that patient? And if an errant ^e corrupts the action message and the patient suffers? Who’s liable? Does the cloud have a lawyer?
Well integrated predictive action systems will be too tempting to set aside. The great challenge will be ensuring that the humans charged with their use have power over them. In effect, being able to stop the assembly line if necessary. Who’s got that plugin ready to go?
I think it is really important for people to have health insurance. The government should make sure that everyone is able to achieve that. A country with health insured individuals is a happy and progressive country.
Tim,
We doctors, as well as patients, need to learn how to navigate the new Health 2.0 environment. No longer the sole authoritative source of medical information, physicians need to adapt, becoming an experienced partner and guide for inquiring patients. Training can help doctors get comfortable in this new role.
Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
http://www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
[Editor-in-Chief]