Health 2.0 Europe: A Moveable Feast

April 19, 2010 · Filed Under demographics, trends & principles · 27 Comments

Ernest Hemingway wrote that Paris is a moveable feast, not fixed in time or place. I think that describes great gatherings of any kind, including great conferences, which begin before the first speaker takes the stage and don’t end simply because the participants have left the building.

Health 2.0 Europe began, for me, in February, when I started thinking about some of the topics that the Patients and Online Communities panel would discuss. My post, “Privacy can kill, openness can heal,” kicked off a discussion about health data rights, the role of health professionals, security/confidentiality/privacy, patient-driven research, and why relatively few patients have joined formal patient communities while naturally-occurring communities on Twitter/MySpace/Facebook have blossomed. Read more

Tags: ACOR, california healthcare foundation, cancer, Chronic Conditions, chronic disease, diabetes, health 2.0, Heart Conditions, High Blood Pressure, Internet Users, Lung Conditions, participatory medicine, patientslikeme, pew internet project, Pew Research Center, Sharing Strength, Social Impact Of The Internet

Access is (almost) everything

December 22, 2009 · Filed Under demographics · 13 Comments

Or: Why health geeks should pay attention to internet access geeks.

The Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Project and Internet Project just released an in-depth look at internet penetration across racial and ethnic categories in the U.S.: Latinos Online, 2006-2008

From 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%. In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period. Though Latinos continue to lag behind whites, the gap in internet use has shrunk considerably.

Most of the growth is coming from foreign-born Latinos and those living in lower-income households. Native-born and higher-income Latinos, like non-Hispanic whites, may have already reached internet saturation in 2006.

Another group that has not moved the needle since 2006: people living with chronic conditions. Read more

Tags: Access Health, Access Numbers, Baby Boomers, Chronic Conditions, chronic disease, Chronic Diseases, Communicating With Friends, diabetes, disability, Ethnic Categories, Gap, Geeks, health information, Health Problems, Heart Conditions, High Blood Pressure, Income Households, internet access, Internet Penetration, Internet Project, Internet Use, Last Time, Latino Adults, Latinos, Lung Conditions, Moot Point, Older Adults, Percentage Points, Pew Research Center, Saturation, Time Period