Health 2.0

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Health 2.0 is a term representing the possibilities between health care, eHealth and Web 2.0, and has come into use after a recent spate of articles in newspapers, and by Physicians and Medical Librarians.[1][2] A possible explanation for the reason that Health has generated its own "2.0" term are its applications across health care in general, and in particular it limitless potential in public health promotion.[3]

Contents

[edit] Level of use of Web 2.0 in Health Care

Little empirical evidence exists to understand how much Web 2.0 is being used in general. Studies suggest the use is extensive, for instance it is estimated that nearly one-third of the 100m Americans who have looked for health information online say that they or people they know have been significantly helped by what they found.[4] This however looks at the broader use of the Internet for health management, but other research has suggested that a segment of 245,000 physicians in the U.S are using Web 2.0 for their practice, indicating that use is beyond the stage of the early adopter with regard to physicians and Web 2.0.[5]

[edit] Types of Web 2.0 technology in Health Care

Web 2.0 is commonly associated with technologies such as weblogs (blogs), social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, and web application programming interfaces (APIs) (see main article Web 2.0).

[edit] Types of Web 2.0 use in Health Care

The following are examples of uses that have been documented in academic literature.

Purpose Description Case example in academic literature Users
Staying informed Used to stay informed of latest developments in a particular field RSS, Podcasts and search tools[6] All (medical professionals and public)
Medical education Use for professional development for doctors, and public health promotion for by public health professionals and the general public How podcasts can be used on the move to increase total available educational time [7] or the many applications of these tools to public health [8] All (medical professionals and public)
Collaboration and practice Web 2.0 tools use in daily practice for medical professionals to find information and make decisions Google searches revealed the correct diagnosis in 15 out of 26 cases (58%, 95% confidence interval 38% to 77%) in a 2005 study[9] Doctors, Nurses
Managing a particular disease Patients with use search tools to find our information about a particular condition Shown that patients have different patterns of Health use depending on if they are newly diagnosed or managing a severe long term illness. Long term patients are more likely to connect to a community in Health 2.0[10] Public

[edit] Criticism of the use of Web 2.0 in health

Several criticism have been raised in the use of Web 2.0 in health. Firstly, the limitations for Medical Doctors (MDs) to use Google as a diagnostic tool, which may be more effective only for conditions with unique symptoms and signs that can easily be used as search term.[9] Secondly, long-held concerns exist about the effects of patients obtaining information online, such as the idea that patients may delay seeking medical advice.[11] Finally concerns exist about the quality of user generated content leading to misinformation, though empirical research has demonstrated that in certain support groups only 6% of information is factually wrong and that only 3% reported that online advice had caused serious harm.[12]

[edit] External Links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Economist, The. 2007. Health 2.0 : Technology and society: Is the outbreak of cancer videos, bulimia blogs and other forms of “user generated” medical information a healthy trend? The Economist, September 6: 73-74
  2. ^ Giustini, D. 2006. How Web 2.0 is changing medicine: Editorial. British Medical Journal, 333:1283-1284
  3. ^ Crespo, R. 2007. Virtual Community Health Promotion. Preventing Chronic Disease, 4(3) : 75
  4. ^ Levy, M. 2007. Online Health. Assessing the Risk and Opportunity of Social and One-to-One Media. Jupiter Research. Accessed at http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:vision/103/id=98795/ on 20/1/2008
  5. ^ Manhattan Research, LLC. 2007. White Paper: Physicians and Web 2.0: 5 Things You Should Know about the Evolving Online Landscape for Physicians. Accessed at http://www.manhattanresearch.com/TTPWhitePaper.aspx on 20/1/2008
  6. ^ Giustini, D. 2006. How Web 2.0 is changing medicine: Editorial. British Medical Journal, 333:1283-1284
  7. ^ Sandars J, Haythornthwaite C. New horizons for e-learning in medical education: ecological and Web 2.0 perspectives.Med Teach. 2007 May;29(4):307-10. Review. PMID: 17786742
  8. ^ Crespo R. Virtual community health promotion. Prev Chronic Dis. 2007 Jul;4(3):A75. PMID: 17572979
  9. ^ a b Tan H, Ng JHK. Googling for a diagnosis—use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study. BMJ 2006;333:1143-5.
  10. ^ Ferguson, T. ePatients white paper. www.e-patients.net. 2007. URL: http://www.e-patients.net/e-Patients_White_Paper.pdf on 22/1/08
  11. ^ Ojalvo, H. E. (1996). Online advice: Good medicine or cyber-quackery? Retrieved September 22, 2007 from http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/dec96/cybrquak.htm
  12. ^ Economist, The. 2007. Health 2.0 : Technology and society: Is the outbreak of cancer videos, bulimia blogs and other forms of “user generated” medical information a healthy trend? The Economist, September 6: 73-74
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