Health 2.0 coast to coast

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