Social Health Networks

Rate your Doctor, it’s Web 2.0 Era
Why do you want to rate only a movie, a hotel, or some mango pickle? Now, Web 2.0 allows you to openly comment even on your doctor’s ability to handle your case. Thus, social networking is spreading its wings to cover health services, too.  So get ready to be part of a new phenomenon – social healthcare networking. 

In fact, according to a research report announced today by online news service and publisher, E-Health Insider, Internet-based public interactions possible on social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia are now poised to enter healthcare domain.

The report: ‘Web 2.0 in the Health Sector: Industry Review with a UK Perspective‘ reveals that new applications based on social health networks and content generated by health service users themselves – such as reviews of doctors and hospitals – will rapidly evolve to challenge existing healthcare systems and create new ways of delivering healthcare services.

It further explains how the application of Web 2.0 technologies is now driving far-reaching changes in healthcare systems in the UK, USA, and Europe, a trend it terms e-health 2.0. The report says those who ignore the deep trends of e-health 2.0 risk missing the early stages of a social, economic, and technological tectonic shift in healthcare planning and delivery.
 
The report argues that e-health 2.0 will first and foremost be consumer-led. Health is consistently one of the most searched for subjects online. The application of Web 2.0 concepts into health is already challenging traditional doctor-patient relationships and beginning to place far greater power in the hands of consumers. These changes are likely to be rapid and may prove highly disruptive.