Web 2.0: A movement within the health community

Abstract

Web 2.0 technologies provide members of the health community - health professionals, health consumers, health carers and medical and health science students - with new and innovative ways to create, disseminate and share information both individually and collaboratively. This phenomenon has been termed Health 2.0. However, Health 2.0 is more than the application of these technologies in the health community; it is a movement that is beginning to transform the nature of health care, particularly in the US. In this paper we present and explain four Web 2.0 technologies - blogs, wikis, podcasts, and social networks - and look at how these technologies are currently being used by health professionals. We consider the use of Web 2.0 technologies by health consumers to find and share information and to form support communities and then we explore a Web 2.0 pedagogical model that would connect medical and health science students - tomorrow's health care professionals - with today's health professionals and health consumers in order to enhance student education through providing collaborative learning opportunities together with ready access to multiple sources of information and expertise. We conclude with some comments on what Web 2.0 might mean for the future of health care. © Copyright 1999 - 2006 Enigma Publishing Ltd.