Business Week Highlights 24 Health 2.0 Players

Highlight (hī’līt‘) n.

1. An especially significant or interesting detail or event.
2. To make prominent; emphasize.

As I mentioned earlier, this weeks issue of Business Week highlights the implications of participatory medicine and notion of patients as partners.  Its worth the read, but if you need the quick synopsis, here it is:

1. Social Networking in General
2. ACOR (1995) and Gilles Frydman – One of first cancer social networking sites
3. BrainTalk (1993) and NeuroTalk (2006) – social network sites for neurology
4. eCleveland Clinic (launched 2005) a general mention about their online outreach efforts
5. Cure Together (July 2008) – chronic disease social network meant to connect patients with researchers
6. Daily Strength (2007) – Online patient support groups around specific diseases
7. Diabetes Mine (2004) – One of the first and most popular online diabetic communities
8. Disaboom (January 2008) – interactive resource for people with disabilities
9. Revolution Health (April 2007) and Everyday Health(2002) – recently merged health and medical information sites with a combined 125+ online tools for helping patients manage their care and medical records.
10. Google (May 2008)- allows for centralized storage of all health information in Googles cloud.
11. Healthcare Scoop (January 2007) – an ad supported Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Minnesota initiative that encourages patients to rate  specific doctors, hospitals, and clinics.
12. Health Central Network (1999) –  or-profit collection of Web sites that provide medical information, personalized tools and resources, and connections to experts and patients.
13. I Am Too Young For This! (2007) – a non-profit advocacy network for people under 40 with a diagnosis of cancer. Started by concert pianist and cancer survivor Matthew Zachary.
14. Inspire (2005) –  online networks for 35 nonprofit health care organizations funded by drug companies looking to recruit patients.
15. Lauren V. Parrot (2002) – 24 year old Ms. Parrot started monthly videos cataloguing her ongoing battle with and advocacy for people with multiple sclerosis.
16. Mayo Clinic (year?) – recognized as one of the worlds foremost medical institutions and first medical center to extensively use health care related blogs, podcasts, and Facebook pages.
17. M.D. Anderson (year?) Houston-based, international recognized leader in Cancer therapy is recognized as having utilized online forums, physician communications, and personal web pages for patients.
18. MedHelp (1994) – interactive site wherein patients can ask leading physician thought leaders questions, participate in physician led forums, and have access to medical / community generated health information.
19. Health Vault (October 2007) – allows for centralized storage of all health information in Microsoft’s cloud with specific focus on interoperability with devices.
20. Organized Wisdom (September 2007) – Human powered search whereby the cognitive capacity of “health docents” is tapped to provide personalized health search experience.
21. Patients Like Me (2005) – Highly interactive social networking site that allowsllows patients to post their medical data and search for other patients with similar medical profiles. Founded by three MIT graduates in 2005, the company aggregates the data stored on its site, strips out identifying details, and sells it to medical companies for research and marketing purposes.
22. Sermo (2006) – most successful social network open only to licensed physicians to discuss treatments, new drugs, and clinical trials. Has coalesced enough physician support (100,000 members) to become a new force within health care policy.
23. SugarStats (June 2007) – Web-based blood-sugar tracker and diabetes management that charges a basic enrollment fee as well as premium services.
24. Trusera (July 2008) – offers software tools for bringing patients with similar conditions together and for tracking responses to different treatments

I think this is a good list, based on Business Weeks limited emphasis on “communication”, but it is far from the truly impactful of Health 2.0 possibilities. While the above mentioned companies have had a tangible impact and influenc on Health 2.0 – the truly transformational companies will be the one that help consumers with their “transactional” needs.  You will notice that the most successful businesses (I specific denote business to highlight the key difference between transactional versus advocacy sites like DiabetesMine, I Am Too Young For This, etc) above – Sermo, Patients Like Me, and Organized Wisdom – have all developed “transactional” models that they are each moving toward becoming sustainable.

However, there are many more TRANSACTIONAL companies coming – ones that help the individual consumers pay for, aquire, move data, and grease the transition from patient to consumer oriented health system. I am thinking about companies like HelloHealth, Maria Health (stealth mode), MyMedLab, 23 and Me, etc.

All coming . . . will highlight as able.