Healthline drags an insurer into Health 2.0
The Web-based health-management tools collectively known as Health 2.0 generally suffer from a major shortcoming, in that they typically put the onus on individuals to learn about them and put them to use. But a few startups are taking an interesting new tack by getting health insurers to offer their Health 2.0 services to their customers — an important development, although one that may present a whole new set of problems.
Last week I wrote about… Continue Reading
Six Health 2.0 firms reinvent doctor-patient ties
The Health 2.0 conference earlier this week was crammed with startups all touting their plans for transforming the broken U.S. healthcare system via innovative technology that empowers patients. Many of these companies are all essentially offering variations on the same themes, but six stood out for their efforts to reinvent the doctor-patient relationship in new and sometimes disquieting ways.
We have the lowdown over at VentureBeat LifeScience.
Six Health 2.0 firms reinvent doctor-patient ties
(UPDATED: Added screenshots and a link to video of the Myca patient-record interface.)
The just-concluded Health 2.0 Conference in San Diego showcased some 30-odd startups and Web sites — with dozens more in the audience — all intent on using the Internet to improve patient care, streamline healthcare practices and bolster the ability of individuals to take charge of their own medical treatment. There’s lots more to say, and I hope to do so over the next… Continue Reading
change:healthcare wants to empower “medical consumers” — but has more work to do
For empowered “medical consumers” to really transform the healthcare system, as Health 2.0 proponents would have, clear pricing and quality data for medical care is essential. Unfortunately, such information is currently in short supply.
The startup change:healthcare aims to fill that void with a revamped Web site, just launched this afternoon. And it’s a nifty idea, if unfortunately still flawed in execution. See our review at VentureBeat Life Sciences.
change:healthcare aims to make medical costs transparent — but falls short in execution
Can social networking help restrain, or even lower, healthcare costs? The Nashville, Tenn., startup change:healthcare is primed to find out.
Healthcare plans are inexorably forcing more cost-sharing on patients — a strategy some call YOYO, for “you’re on your own” — which means that the actual cost of medical care is looming larger for many Americans. Healthcare free-marketers think that’s a good thing, arguing that cost-consciousness will make people better medical consumers and cut down on… Continue Reading
CareSeek taps nurse community amid a glut of “me-too” Health 2.0 startups
Like any other Internet craze, Health 2.0 is plagued with a glut of startups that are all doing variations on the same thing — health-related search, social communities, and physician ratings/directories.
So how do startups make it when one site looks much like the next? Over at VentureBeat Life Sciences, we take a look at CareSeek, a doctor-rating and would-be community site that specifically aims to attract nurses and other caregivers — in other words, to… Continue Reading
The Health 2.0 glut, and how one startup adapts
The Health 2.0 movement, as I’ve noted before, makes some big claims about the Internet’s power to transform the relationships between patients and doctors, hospitals, insurers and each other. Some of that is undoubtedly true, and there’s a fascinating amount of innovation going on in this area– helped along by a recent torrent of venture capital.
There’s a downside to the movement, though, and that’s a bizarre oversupply of sites that are all doing slight variations… Continue Reading
Google Health is here — or is it?
(UPDATED: See below.)
Well, the WSJ says so in this somewhat breathless report that states Google will announce its long-awaited personal health-record service today.
My first thought was that the announcement was timed to get Google on the record in advance of the Health2.0 “Spring Fling” conference in San Diego next week, which will feature lots of talk about the role of the Internet in improving healthcare. Another possibility is that Google is pulling a bait-and-switch similar… Continue Reading
Comparing doctors online? dCard aims to make it easier
Plenty of startups these days want to help you find and compare doctors online, but there’s a problem: Each one independently compiles its own basic information on physicians, leading to a welter of inconsistent data.
Now a consortium of nine health-related companies, many of them part of the “Health 2.0″ movement, have a solution — an open data standard they call dCard (for “doctor card”) intended to serve as a Web-wide template for physician information. We… Continue Reading
Eager to compare doctors online? Some Health 2.0 startups want to make it easier for you
(UPDATED: See below.)
A group of nine healthcare companies and providers are aiming to turn the tables on often disorganized medical record-keeping — by standardizing information about doctors themselves.
The effort, known as dCard, is aimed at bringing a certain degree of order to the mishmash of information that dozens of online physician directory and rating services currently deal with. Most of these sites grab as much basic information about doctors as they can from publicly available sources… Continue Reading
Google Health and its Cleveland testbed
The impending — or so it’s seemed — launch of Google Health has spurred any number of comparisons, invidious and otherwise, to Microsoft’s flashier but ultimately disappointing launch of HealthVault last October.
Now that Google has finally announced its first big health project with the Cleveland Clinic, though, it’s far from clear exactly how its platform is going to address nagging privacy issues and the fundamental question of how much control patients will have over their… Continue Reading
Peeling back the veil of ignorance — why medical costs vary so much, and what Health 2.0 might do to help
The burgeoning movement known as “Health 2.0″ makes some pretty big claims about the power of social networks and Web services to transform the sprawling mess we like to call the U.S. healthcare system. One of the central principles is that providing individuals with better information about medical treatments and procedures will make them better “medical consumers” capable of exerting market pressure that can improve quality and lower prices.
There’s nothing at all wrong with that… Continue Reading
Health-info site HealthCentral Network pulls in $50M
(UPDATED: IAC put out a release this morning — see below.)
The HealthCentral Network, an Arlington, Va., collection of health-information sites, raised roughly $50 million, paidContent reports. Investors included some big names, include Barry Diller’s online media and commerce conglomerate IAC, Sequoia Capital, Carlyle Group and Polaris Venture Partners.
HealthCentral runs about 30 health-related Web sites, ranging from general-info offerings like HealthCentral.com to disease-specific sites such as OurAlzheimers.com and MultipleSclerosisCentral.com. (The company also owns the DrKoop.com name, although… Continue Reading
Google Health launching soon?
Trust the reliable folks over at Google Blogoscoped to unearth a login page for the long-awaited Google Health service before it actually launches. Neither the login nor any of the links on the page seem to work, but it’s another tantalizing glimpse at what Google may soon be unveiling.
It’s worth noting that Marissa Mayer, who took over the Google Health project after Adam Bosworth unceremoniously decamped to launch his own health-related startup, said last… Continue Reading
iMedix combines health search and community — but does neither well
(UPDATED: See below.)
For all the fuss over “Health 2.0″ companies that hope to revolutionize the U.S. medical system by tapping the bottom-up information-sharing capabilities of the Web, the unfortunate fact is that many of them are busily piling into business areas that are already seriously overcrowded. Worse, many seem to have no business model at all. iMedix, a new site hoping to draw users into a community where they can share information about their medical conditions,… Continue Reading
Microsoft launches HealthVault to manage your health search and medical records — but it will hurt a bit
UPDATED: See below. Also, this is now part one of a two-part post; for the second part, which actually reviews the HealthVault service, click here.
Microsoft has finally unveiled its first stab at managing personal health records on the Web, and it’s an interesting, if underwhelming, attempt to realize a future in which individuals have much more control over their personal health information.
Called HealthVault, the Microsoft offering combines yet another healthcare-info search engine with the record-storage application… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007
Featured companies: Change:healthcare, Gemin X Biotechnologies, Ipsogen, the Practice
Change:healthcare raises $1M for health 2.0 sites — Nashville, Tenn.-based change:healthcare, a provider of Web-based health information, raised $1 million in a first funding round. The investment firm Solidus, also based in Nashville, provided the cash. There’s no release, but the Nashville Business Journal did run this story.
Change:healthcare operates two “health 2.0″ Web sites designed to empower individuals by helping them better navigate the healthcare system. FindYourDoc.com offers… Continue Reading
Perspective: Personalizing Medicine in the Age of Health 2.0
[NOTE: This is a life-science perspective piece by Vance Vanier, a Stanford physician and a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures. For previous perspective pieces, click here. --D.P.H.]
By VANCE VANIER
Katherine is a 35 year old experiencing fatigue, tingling in her hands, and visual problems. She made an appointment with her doctor, arrived with a stack of online health site print-outs, and announced that she had diagnosed her problem as a relatively rare pituitary tumor. She was… Continue Reading