6 Best Free Web 2.0 Healthcare Tools
Healthcare Websites and You: What to Take Away
It should be noted that this paper was largely completed before the Oct. 4th launch of Microsoft's beta-version PHM offering, HealthVault, which comprises a health search engine as well as tools for online storage of personal medical data. In the future, stay tuned to find major PHM offerings from Google, as InformationWeek reported on Oct. 14th that the consumer-oriented Google Health initiative is due in early 2008. Users can expect to find personal health record storage, healthcare-related search, and localized "doctor finder" applications. In the meantime, the above list of tools and the websites providing them are a good base from which to begin your own online personal health monitoring and community-building.
To review, the common characteristics among the best free and relatively unknown healthcare tools and sites are that they allowed the consumers who experienced them to:
- Participate and share in active communities, forums, and social networks
- Use nothing other than an Internet connection, browser and/or registration to gain access
- Record, store, and update their own data for personal tracking and/or sharing
- View rich, interactive, user-friendly interfaces
- Find relevant information quickly and conveniently
Now you know the basics of Health 2.0and where to go for examples of innovative, easy-access sites and tools. If you would like argue for your own or another site's worthiness as a shining example of Health 2.0, please send reasoned suggestions and explanations to fathomseo_healthguide@gmail.com.
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