Health 2.0 Get-Together

Wonks and geeks – that's who we need to build the next health care. Wonks (policy types) are in the forefront right now. But the geeks (tech types) are working away, like lemurs in the final age of the dinosaurs, filling the ecological niches that are opening up, building not just disruptive devices and applications, but entire disruptive value chains, just outside of the spotlight, just under the radar. We're 10 days away from the Health 2.0 San Francisco 09 conference, the big confab of the Matthew Holt/The Health Care Blog crowd (THCB.com). Thursday night a little pre-conference cocktail party featured brand-new companies doing sharp things like putting workflows and checklists on iPhones and Blackberries, or using cheap sensors for constant real-time monitoring of children with asthma, bed-ridden adults in danger of bed sores, and other vulnerable people. The party overflowed the mean and lean offices (about big enough for a 4-car garage) of MedHelp.com, a massive online health community claiming 8 million unique visitors a month, and a million registered users tracking their health in over 300 different conditions. If you're looking for the future of health care, Health 2.0 confabs are not bad places to hang out.