What I mostly write about here is the relationship between web 2.0 and medicine. I know exactly that most of these web 2.0 tools have been around for quite a long time. Most of these things are not new and regarding the software, there aren’t any differences in most of the cases. But!

These tools and services will help us how to change medicine. In my opinion, the most essential problem of medicine nowadays is the sharing of information. Some months ago, I wrote about a blogger who fights Pompe disease, a rare genetic disorder and he told me about the diagnostic delay. I try to help physicians how they can find information easier and faster. For example: http://scienceroll.com/2007/05/27/10-tips-how-to-search-for-genetic-diseases/

Do you think that physicians know about these tools? They’re far from that. Most of the doctors use the internet just for writing e-mails and reading public news. They don’t know about these possibilities on the field of medicine.

So even if this web 2.0 bubble is false, this group of services can save a large amount of time and make many tasks easier for physicians. That’s why I think at least some of us have to write about these possibilities.

What do you think? I hope it was understandable.

That said… Medicine and Web 2.0 hasn’t matured yet. Podcasts aren’t something I think are actually Web 2.0 – sharing audio files has been around quite a long time, and most people use it as an excuse not to post a transcript…. which would make it easier to find.

The core of web technologies existence within the medical field has not changed. It reflects an antiquated medical system, primed with bureaucracy – like many other systems. It is unfortunate that this is the case, but if technology can be used to remove some of the bureaucracy… that would be good. The intent of medicine is to help people… and if we measure each one of these by how well they improve the treatment of people… how well do they measure?