Social Web: Web 2.0 Technologies to Enhance Knowledge Communities - Community-Built Databases: Research and Development - page 7

1.3 Social Web and Health Care

In the health care industry, the Internet has become an important resource for
consumers seeking online health-related information, as well as social and emo-
tional support. The Internet is also changing medical practice, transforming bio-
medical research, and empowering health care consumers [ 13 ]. PEW internet
research surveys conducted in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 have consistently
found that well over 75% of Internet users looked online for health information [ 14 ].
On websites such as WebMD, familydoctor.org, mayoclinic.com, and emedici-
nehealth.com that serve the general public in health-related issues, information is
posted by a select group of experts (e.g., medical doctors and nurse practitioners) but
can be searched and used by anyone. These websites serve different patient popula-
tions whose interests range from chronic diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer, to
rudimentary ailments, such as joint pain or fever, and have become an indispensible
resource for many health care consumers.
Traditionally, many of these venues were used for disseminating health-related
knowledge which was perceived as a relatively low-cost solution to help alleviate
the load of the overburdened health care system. Some of the health care forums
such as WebMD, enabled by Web 2.0 technologies, also allow the general public to
share their experiences, and an increasing number of web users are turning to one
another for answers about many different subjects. This knowledge gained from the
expert-provided information, as well as experiences shared by other patients, can be
a valuable resource that can positively affect both physical and emotional well-
being of the patients seeking help [ 15 ]. The trends suggest that “whereas someone
may have in the past called [upon] a health professional, their Mom, or a good
friend, they now are also reading blogs, listening to podcasts, updating their social
network profile, and posting comments” ([ 14 ], p. 7).
Because of the immense popularity of these Web 2.0 technologies in health care,
new terms such as “Health 2.0” and “Medicine 2.0” have been coined. Hughes et al.
[ 16 ] define Health 2.0 as - “the use of Web 2.0 web tools such as blogs, podcasts,
tagging, search, Wikis, etc. by actors in health care including doctors, patients, and
scientists, using principles of open source and generation of content by users, and
the power of networks in order to personalize health care, collaborate, and promote
health education”.
Along a very similar line, Eysenbach [ 13 ] defines “Medicine 2.0 applications,
services, and tools as web-based services for health care consumers, caregivers,

patients, health professionals, and biomedical researchers, that use Web 2.0 tech-
nologies and/or semantic web and virtual reality approaches to enable and facilitate
specifically (1) social networking, (2) participation, (3) apomediation, (4) openness,
and (5) collaboration, within and between these user groups”. While according to
Jessen [ 17 ], Medicine 2.0 is “the science of maintaining and/or restoring human
health through the study, diagnosis and treatment of patients utilizing Web 2.0
internet-based services, including web-based community sites, blogs, Wikis, social
bookmarking, folksonomies (tagging) and Really Simple Syndication (RSS),

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