San Francisco Fall 2010

Keynotes from the 'Godfather of Web 2.0' and America’s best known health care futurist.

A series of demos and conversations about how Health 2.0 is changing online health content. We took a look at new business models, partnerships and distribution mechanisms. We also tackled the underlying question of how search and content promote consumer engagement in health.

The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge was announced in June 2010 as a result of the Community Health Data Initiative. Since it’s announcement, it’s created 10+ challenges and dozens of teams. This session highlighted a handful of the winners, and provided information about the future of innovation in Health 2.0.

In addition to the Developer Challenge winners, there was a special panel on the Blue Button Initiative, and a round-up of the latest news and demos from the Community Health Data Initiative hosted by Todd Park (former CTO, HHS).

Online social networks in health are changing rapidly. In less than five years, there was a rapid transformation of simple bulletin boards and listservs. Now online communities are becoming robust tracking tools for longitudinal data that can be mined for clinical insights and therapeutic activity. The traditional health care system started to take notice and test the integration of online communities in their programs. We explored the latest developments and how they would influenced the future landscape of online social networks.

In the end, Health 2.0 will have the biggest impact when the combination of tools, content, and community changes health behavior. But what actually drives behavior change? And are we even asking the right questions? In a first for Health 2.0, we featured a series of brief presentations, brand new survey results, and discussion of what no one in health care wants to talk about--the 'The Unmentionables'.

A conversation with 3 CEOs, from companies that were transforming and being transformed by Health 2.0, about the future of their businesses.

The last year we introduced the concept of the “Data Utility Layer.” It was about the separation of data from applications, and enabling transfer of data among, and between different applications. Since then, the complexity of moving data had only increased, but technological solutions linking data in different systems, while tackling the thorny issues of privacy, identity and permissions, were becoming more important. This panel showed some of those leading solutions, and the many unplatforms they need to connect with. (UnPlatforms comprise the next frontier in moving data between web/mobile/ubiquitous internet connected devices.)

Last year we demonstrated the start of an ecosystem for Health 2.0. This year’s panel was a showcase of the Accelerator Apps Network from members of the Health 2.0 Accelerator. These are web applications and services that work together – collaborating two, three, four, and more at a time, serving as platforms for other apps and as interoperable bridges between apps – all to connect and support patients, caregivers and providers. We also showed some of the coolest and most innovative tools for consumers, including some examples from our most popular breakout, Wellness 2.0.

Health 2.0 is not just about technology. In this panel we showed the latest advances in Health 2.0 tools for clinicians and how they’re working together. We also be looked at examples of programs that have incorporated Health 2.0 technology into clinical and business operations. What results have they shown and how have those partnerships begun to reform care delivery?

Funding models for health IT are changing. Incentive systems in mainstream health care may be too–but perhaps not fast enough. We listened to what several veteran technology entrepreneurs and VCs said about what’s needed for new opportunities and heard feedback from a new breed of “investors” as well.