Mixed feelings about health 2.0

I’m in San Francisco for the fifth annual Health 2.0 Conference. I attended the first two, missed the last two, but this year, I have several reasons for being here, not the least of which is to help out MobiHealthNews with coverage.

I’ve always been conflicted about this conference, and about the whole health 2.0 movement. In some ways, it represents the cutting edge of health IT thinking and consumer engagement. In other ways, it represents Bubble 2.0, with lots of interesting ideas that won’t catch on with the public and/or the healthcare community, as well as companies with no readily evident revenue model. (You know how I feel about style vs. substance.) But the positives generally outweigh the negatives.

Today, there were some pre-conference sessions. The one for doctors seemed like a dog-and-pony show, where various vendors paraded their products in front of an audience. This was my only real astute observation, as posted on Twitter:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/nversel/status/118085752008622080″]

It sounded like the Patients 2.0 session was more compelling. Check this Twitter search for more details. Engaging patients is a great idea, but my personal feeling is that the session may have been a little heavy on the kumbaya. To wit:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/seanahrens/status/118101681589321728″]

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/rzeiger/status/118079299784937472″]

I’m liking these tweets a little better:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/mcuthbert33/status/118115609073561600″]

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/rsgold/status/118148427250020352″]

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/maisybones/status/118111542607740928″]

This post is a little heavy on the Twitter for a reason. I expect to be tweeting a lot more than blogging the next two days, mostly due to time constraints. Check out my Twitter feed on the right side of this page, or just go here.