Health 2.0 - Definitions and Inclusions

Definitions and Inclusions

The "2.0" moniker is associated with concepts like social networking, collaboration, openess, and participation.

The "Traditional" definition focuses on technology as an enabler for care collaboration--

"The use of social software and light-weight tools to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders in health" An expanded version of the traditional definition breaks this into components:

1. Personalized search that looks into the long tail, but cares about the user experience.
2. Communities that capture the accumulated knowledge of patients and caregivers; and clinicians—and explain it to the world,
3. Intelligent tools for content delivery—and transactions, and
4. Better integration of data with content. All with the result of patients increasingly guiding their own care

Scott Shreeve considers Health 2.0 as a wider system reform--

"New concept of health care wherein all the constituents (patients, physicians, providers, and payers) focus on health care value (outcomes/price) and use competition at the medical condition level over the full cycle of care as the catalyst for improving the safety, efficiency, and quality of health care" Then there's the concept of Health 2.0 as a participatory process between patient and clinician (with a couple of notable twists) --

Health 2.0 defines the combination of health data and health information with (patient) experience through the use of ICT, enabling the citizen to become an active and responsible partner in his/her own health and care pathway.

Health 2.0 is participatory healthcare. Enabled by information, software, and community that we collect or create, we the patients can be effective partners in our own healthcare, and we the people can participate in reshaping the health system itself. Definitions of Medicine 2.0 appear to be very similar but typically include more scientific and research aspects—Medicine 2.0: "Medicine 2.0 applications, services and tools are Web-based services for health care consumers, caregivers, patients, health professionals, and biomedical researchers, that use Web 2.0 technologies as well as semantic web and virtual reality tools, to enable and facilitate specifically social networking, participation, apomediation, collaboration, and openness within and between these user groups. Published in JMIR Tom Van de Belt, Lucien Engelen et al. systematic review found 46 (!) unique definitions of health 2.0

Health 2.0 is evolving fast as the technology landscape evolves. As does the desire by healthcare professionals and by patients to embrace new technology and new services. However, already there are signs of Health 3.0 emerging. Health 3.0 is defined as delivery of healthcare which leverages the use of elements of Semantic Web such as location awareness, the emerging Internet of Things and embedded sensors. Doctors 2.0 are also leveraging social media as a powerful tool. Dedicated social networking sites for doctors like Sermo, SocialMD, Ozmosis etc. are doctor-only social networks. Here the doctors get a chance to interact and share knowledge with other doctors. Doctors are entering into the field of blogging, where they share their experiences in the form of case studies, give insight about diseases, discuss common healthcare issues, and offer simple remedies for them.