Health Law

Health 2.0 coast to coast

By David Harlow

Last week saw the most recent Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.  While I did not make it out to the left coast for the event, I got a tiny taste in advance, at the second Health 2.0 Northeast confab earlier this month in Cambridge (our fair city), MA.  (Like John Grohol of e-patients.net, I enjoyed networking before the formal program.) 

I was struck by a number of differences in tone and content from the last Health 2.0 Northeast event.  For starters, many of the companies featured in the presentations and panel discussion are not what I would call Health 2.0 companies.  Second, moderator Wade Roush (of Xconomy) asked each panelist to explain their business model (!) -- the ever-elusive monetizaton of Health 2.0, and a concern that is more front-and-center these days. 

Patients Like Me and Wego Health seem to qualify as Health 2.0 companies, creating a forum for user-generated content, and harnessing the wisdom, or at least the experience, of the crowds.  American Well (a site that connects beneficiaries of participating health plans with on-call docs via the web or even telephone), Tangerine Wellness (weight loss programs for employee groups), Silverlink (reminder phone calls), and the Endovascular Forum (an on-line forum for physicians who perform endoscopic procedures) really don't seem to fit the bill.

David Harlow
The Harlow Group LLC
Health Care Law and Consulting

Full post as published by HealthBlawg on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).