Revenge of the experts - Is it crucial to the Health 2.0?

One of the hypes concerning the web 2.0 is the "Wisdom of the crowds" concept.

This concept led to developement of many SU including in the Health 2.0/Medical 2.0 sector.
Many new communitiesand social networks are based on this concept.
In the health sector we reviewed in the past several consumers based communities and it seems that there are more and more of them .
I want to share with you a review I read on newsweek which published several days ago - The revenge of the experts .
The main theme is the importance of the experts knowledge to influence and to balance unauthorized and unreliable content.
In the article you can find some example for new "certified content sites "
like :
Bigthink.com
or:
Googles version for wikipedia -Knol (here you can find a sample of knol for the term "Insomnia").

I must agree with the thesis and even say that its more crucial in the health sector.
We must be aware of the cons and the dangers of consumers becoming "addicted" to others unprofessional advices without any reliable source who can edit or controll some way the content flow.
No, Im not arguing that social networks are a major forward step in the nature of the web but probably the next step will be finding the gold pathway that will combine the power of the "wisdom of the crowds" with the basic power of the "knowledge of the experts".
In the health/medical sector is essential.

Social networking for physicians - Updated on Medical 20.com

Yesterday we updated our Medical 20.com site with several more social networking and communities for physicians.
So we have almost dozen of these kind of sites so far.

1. Do we need so many sites for narrow niche ( lets remember that the main crowd didnt join yet to the web 2.0/ Health 2.0 hype) ? .
2.What is their business model or what is the added value these sites are giving to the professionals outside of the commodities - platform and application for community ?

For me thereare intuitive answers :

1. Its too crowded for another "simple" social networking.
2. The "basic platform" for community should be an extra layer to an innovative idea that will gather the professional together.
Im waiting for the "killer platform" that will cause physicians and scientist to see and value the benefits of being there- on the net .

What is your observation regarding this issue?

The battle on the health sector- Google versus Microsoft

So much was written so far and will be written in the future about the coming war between the big two lions on the health sector .
For us its a tremendous proff for the existance and the spreading of the health 2.0 movement.
Lately I found an article posted on the Eweek.com journal . Its about the competition on the online PHR between the two companies .
In the article there are observations about the similiarities and the differences between the Microsoft Health project (Healthvault) and Googles Health.
For me its quite obvious that everyone of them has a strategic plan to be the central player in the health 2.0 sector so the competition at the medium and the distance phases is unavoidable.

Reliefinsite.com - Tracking and control your pain

What are some of the important characteristics on web site/platform in general or web 2.0 platform specifically?

Simplicity
Usability

If we are investigating health 2.0 platforms its even more important because the professionals are not tech savvy .So these two characteristics can be crucial.

Reliefinsite.com is a platform that is either simple to use and to interact with .Also it has well usability format.
I also like its clean design.
Most of all, this site is giving a great solution to a developing sector in the modern medicine - pain control.
There are more and more physicians that are a "pain experts".
To manage your patients chronic pain you must find way to make a good history survey of their symptoms and you must build a continuous relationship with them to understand the quality and quantity of their pain , and related symptoms.
Reliefpain is just giving you a simple way to use the web for interaction with your patients .
This site is another great example on how health 2.0 can help building a close interaction between physicians and patients for treating chronic diseases and medical conditions

IBM takes part in the virtual healthcare world

Only few days ago IBM announced the openning of their own new virtual healthcare island on second life .
It looks as an additive post to my last one published yesterday.


The "big lions" are thinking "virtual" as part of their strategic plans in the health 2.0 world and as part of their vision concerning the healthcare sector in general.

It seems that the island for the current is more a front station for IBM to present and show their vision regarding healthcare system including presentation of their EMR, EHR tools/platforms etc .
IBM's plan is to develop more their island in the next following months .

Worth waiting