Four things came together in healthcare and social media towards the end of 2006.
- A great phone conversation with Monique Levy from JupiterKagan
- My participation in the first Healthcare Blogging Summit
- My review of Steve Case's new online healthcare service, Revolution (review orthcoming)
- And my father's cancer treatment
Together, the impression is clear. 2007 will be a big year for consumers creating useful content to further their healthcare needs. Monique Levy, a researcher at JupiterKagan will be releasing some interesting research this January. She gave me a little preview and we discussed what some of the opportunities are for healthcare professionals to engage in a universe where peers are talking about issues, doctor and hsopital recommendations and treatments.
According to Monique/JupiterKagan
Of the people looking for health information online (65%), 41% are creating content; 69% are consuming and 32% are doing both. (look for her research soon and that will confirm the context I am remembering for these numbers).Monique corrected me:
"- As many as 34 percent of online users said they connected to others or the content they created online about health and wellness issues using various types of peer-to-peer and social media in the last year. Of these health connectors 69 percent are consuming content, 41 percent creating and 32 percent doing both."
The short story is that a ton of folks are creating content: either blogging or message-boarding about issues, treatments, hospitals & doctors.
The Healthcare Blogging Summit was the first in a series from Dmitriy Kruglyak. It felt like the healthcare bloggers were connecting offline for the first time. All povs were lumped together in one room (literally) - policy folks, marketing and business consultants, hospital CEOs, blogging doctors, and patient advocacy groups. Dmitri is rolling out more of these in 2007 (next one in Vegas) and the program will likely focus and get more sophisticated.
Revolution is in beta. They were nice enough to give me an account and I will be reviewing it this week. Fard has already provided a pretty good review.
Like some of my peers, my parents are struggling with new health issues. My dad (80) is undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Both the disease and the treatments have become common place. He will be getting a computer for the first time in his life in a few weeks ostensibly to share email with family members. But I am square in the bullseye of the generation using the Web to understand what choices he has (and what mine will be when my time comes).
What else will happen this year to advance social media in healthcare?
- eons will really take off, my dad will become a member, and their most popular content will move from diets to health & wellness
- a big pharmaceutical will announce a very pro-active social media "listening" program to better understand patients and share that with physicians. they will simultaneously announce a very pro-active adverse events reporting discipline
- new Congress will revive healthcare reform "noise" (whether they accomplish anything is a whole different story)
- expect some significant step forward in digital health records
- consumer-driven healthcare as insurance providers define it will become more popular (i.e. consumers will prefer it and the benefits it brings)
healthcare, revolution, healthcare+blogging+summit, digital+influence, john+ bell
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