Internet Meets Helthcare

 By Dr. Pawel Suwinski, Principal Consultant for Healthcare, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific

 With rising affluence and better access to health information facilitated by the Internet, our society underwent transformation towards greater appreciation of health. Individuals are more likely to spend their disposable income on products and services that allow them to attain and maintain good health status. This tendency is being extended to the periods of ill health with individuals wanting to have more control over their healthcare choices. This change in individual perception from need to want with regards to personal healthcare management requires not only access to health information but also the ability to interact with others within the healthcare industry. The deployment of Web 2.0 technologies enabling the creation, exchange, and research of health content is called Health 2.0. The benefits of using Health 2.0 applications by patients and individuals range from the　advancement of healthcare industry and improvement of quality of services to better management of their own health.

Disease-related portals (e.g., PatientsLikeMe, HealthCentral Network, and Diabetic Connect), where patients exchange their experience, share on adverse drug reaction, or even conduct their own clinical trial to create a wealth of information that otherwise would require years to complete due to red tapes and financial constraints.

The coming together of patients and caregivers?on the Internet gives opportunity to more authorised use of health information, opportunity to receive second opinion, and for the family of patients to obtain valuable support. Sites that facilitate interaction between healthcare professionals and patients include AmericanWell and Sermo.

Health search and Wikis such as WebMD, MSN ?Health, Google Health, and Yahoo Revolution Health are the basic tools on which patients rely to find reliable health and healthcare related information.

The use of artificial intelligence to provide simple analytical tools that will assist patients in the disease management—adherence to medication regimen, basic diagnostics, and weight management through calories intake calculation—are already available by the hundreds for Internet and mobile devices.