Introduction to Health 2.0

Scott Shreeve has been blogging extensively about Health 2.0. Scott is the co-founder of Medsphere and was interviewed by Mr. HIStalk in August 2005 (see: An Exclusive Interview with Scott Shreeve, Medsphere Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer). Health 2.0 is an interesting topic and I intend to post additional notes about it, particularly with reference to the role of the clinical laboratory in consumer-directed healthcare. As veteran readers of this blog will know, I have posted a number of notes about direct access testing (DAT) and also the personal health record (PHR), both of which are elements in Health 2.0.

To launch this discussion about Health 2.0, you may want to review one of Scott's relevant notes about the topic (see: The Canonical Health 2.0 Representation). In this note, he provides a graphic representation of the concept plus links to his other blog notes and other relevant materials. Here is a definition of Health 2.0 from the Wikipedia:

New concept of healthcare wherein all the constituents (patients, physicians, providers, and payers) focus on healthcare value (outcomes/price) and use competition at the medical condition level over the full cycle of care as the catalyst for improving the safety, efficiency, and quality of health care"

In addition to his graphic, Scott also lists the following attributes of Health 2.0 in the article cited above:

• The basis of Health 2.0 is Patient Empowered Healthcare whereby patients have the information they need to be able to make rational healthcare decisions (transparency of information) based on value.
• The concept is reliant on the interoperability of health information. Everything from the Personal Health Record (PHR), to the Clinic Health Record (CHR), to the Enterprise Health Record (EHR), to the National Health Record (NHR) must be based on standards, be seamlessly transitioned between environments per standardized security and privacy protocols, and be accessible anytime from anywhere.
• Connectivity, price, quality, and incentives, components of Value Driven Healthcare, begin to create a virtuous cycle of innovation and reform. Transparency serves as a key catalyst in this process by creating positive sum competition that can deliver better outcomes at a lower cost.
• An increased amount of personal health and outcomes information will also create an ongoing role for infomediaries and related service providers add value at each stage of the full cycle of care.

For additional reading about the relevance of Health 2.0 for entrepreneurial physicians, another physician blogger named Philippa Kennealy lists the following attributes of Health 2.0 (see: Just what does "Health 2.0" mean for physicians in business).

• Customer-focused.
• Transparent.
• Focused on achieving measurable and meaningful outcomes.
• Incentives are aligned.
• The "fulcrum" or centerpiece is the full continuum of care.
• Relies on the connectivity that truly interoperable technology standards can provide.
• Includes monitoring and managing.