Web 2.0 - Too Good to be True?

As a blogger you don't need to sell me a bill of goods for Web 2.0 but is it the latest fashion or a vital business tool? For business looking to leverage Web 2.0 the pay-back for investment is in collaborative efforts of teams. Certainly, community based multi-disciplinary medical teams could make use of greater collaboration.



Here are the statistics according to a recent article in CIO Insight: 70% of people believe Web 2.0 can help people work more efficiently and 39% are willing to use the tools. The kicker is that 52% of CIO's feel securing sensitive data is a major barrier to the tools.



As Health 2.0 progresses past the purpose of "entertain and inform" to collaborative tool, security will become a major consideration in it's adoption. Even in my own practice, web & email based referrals are not particularly common due to security and data loss concerns (more associated with human error than network issues). I'd add that ease of use will be another major obstacle. Being an early adopter of technology, I thought putting as many resources on-line would be welcomed with open arms but the limitations of Web 2.0 stop us from leveraging it in the same way that banks do it.

There will likely come a day when a patients' chart is their own and practitioners access it rather than the opposite where a chart is considered the property of the practitioner. Until we can create a seamless tool at a reasonable price that is free of hacks, bugs, SPAM and time-eating useless steps Health 2.0 will take a back seat to other priorities in health care.