Arguments about the validity of Health 2.0 are moot. It is here!! Hundreds of thousands of patients and providers use the format in advocacy groups, using facebook, twitter, blogs, and search engines. Is Google a health 2.0 app?
The following story is well worth the read
THOUGHTS ON MEDICINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA (Regina Holliday)
On Wednesday, May 27, 2009 I met Dr. Ted Eytan. I was invited to present a patient and caregiver view of hospitalization at a small health 2.0 meeting. I saw Powerpoint presentations with bar charts and graphs. I sat patiently taking notes about the state of ehealth and social media. At around 3:15 I spoke. I described the horror of my husband being diagnosed with cancer and of terror of not being told what was going on. I spoke about the fight we had fought to get to get a copy of the medical record. I recounted the numerous times I had used the information in his record to improve his care. The record sat upon the table in a three inch thick binder. There was silence in the room. We were no longer speaking in the abstract about patients. They asked me to focus on what was the worst thing that had happened through this entire tragedy. I told them the worst thing we experienced was lack of access to my husband’s data.
