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Health 2.0 and Privacy Lost

by | Dec 3, 2007

In all the hype surrounding the latest Internet bubble, we’re faced with user-generated content and meaningless marketing terms like “Health 2.0” which are used to suggest everything and nothing all at once. Whatever definition of Health 2.0 you can...

Googlers vs. e-patients vs. cyberchondriacs

by | Nov 26, 2007

Tara Parker-Pope’s blog, Well, sparked an outcry last week when she posted, “A Doctor’s Disdain for Medical ‘Googlers’”. Before you read her post and all the comments (275 so far), I recommend reading the actual Time column which inspired it all....

What Works Best for Patients on the Web?

by | Oct 11, 2007

Joe Shapiro’s piece on patients turning to the internet was well done and interesting. Our thanks to Susannah Fox for her contribution to this article, and for her work on the survey about patients with chronic condititions who use the internet. I particularly...

Open Internet vs. Closed Doctor-Directed Systems

by | Oct 11, 2007

This morning’s NPR story, “Patients Turn to the Internet for Health Information,” featured data from my e-patients report, but also some research that has been conducted at the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS) at the University...

“Good enough” technology

by | Jul 18, 2007

In doing some reading about online health, I was struck by a phrase repeated a few times: “good enough” technology. First, Google was deemed a “good enough” diagnostic tool by two Australian doctors. Then, Vince Kuraitis blogged about how...

E-Patients And The Participatory Internet- Part II

by | Jun 19, 2007

In a post a couple of weeks ago (Part I), I talked about the participatory nature of the internet and related platforms. OK, I agree that “Web 2.0″ is already becoming a somewhat empty concept, as some of my colleagues have noted on this very site. No matter...

Geologic/Patient Ages

by | Jun 12, 2007

Four months ago I had the opportunity to backpack with my son Kevin from the south rim of the Grand Canyon down thousands of feet to the floor of the inner canyon (and then back up again). As we descended, we passed through layer after layer of geologic time, seen...

E-patients and Health 2.0

by | Jun 5, 2007

In an alternate universe, there’s a world exploring the innovations of Web 2.0 in healthcare more generally (and, from my eyes, with a little less focus on the individual person and their contributions to the conversation) which has been termed “Health...

Are E-files Spurring an E-shortage?

by | May 14, 2007

Gilles Frydman points us to this story from The Boston Globe today that illustrates one of the downsides to this push to electronic medical records — people who know how to use them: The explosion of computerization in patient record-keeping means hospitals are...

New Pew Report on Internet Social Ties

by | Mar 4, 2006

This new report just out from the Pew Internet & American Life Project: The Strength of Internet Ties, by John Horrigan, Jeffrey Boase, Lee Rainie, and Barry Wellman. It calls into question previous fears that social relationships and community are fading away in...

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