We’re here at Stanford University for the Medicine 2.0 Summit and Conference, an annual international event in which medtech visionaries share their thoughts about how the web is transforming the way we do medicine.
Yesterday’s, the first day of the event is actually the summit, a pre-conference featuring talks and panels from various speakers from all areas of academia. The theme of the day, and the conference in general, is embracing social media in the field of medicine.
Speakers included Jay Parkinson, the doctor famous for offering house calls through the Internet, who encouraged attendees to not accept the status quo and be creative in ways of reaching out to patients. Sue Swanson of Seattle Children’s Hospital explained how the ultimate goal of using social media is to help build a trusted relationship between doctors and their patients. Howard Rheingold, a social media pioneer, gave a patient’s perspective as he shared how social media helped him during his fight with cancer.
Another panel, which included Medgadget alumnus Bertalan Mesko, discussed how technology, namely the Internet, is changing academia and the way that medical education is done. An interesting topic of lively discussion was utilizing video gaming in training prospective physicians. Let’s just say it wasn’t unanimous that medical schools will be utilizing PS3’s in their curriculum anytime soon.
Yet another panel discussed the power of crowds and the hive mind. One interesting project is Google’s Flu Trends, which has demonstrated that an increase in certain search queries correlates very closely with an increase in the incidence of influenza. Charlie Cheever, a co-founder of Quora, an ever-improving database of questions and answers not related directly to healthcare, explained how its technology can influence medicine.
Throughout the day, there were also demos of JiffPad, an innovative iPad app for enhancing medical education and communication between physicians and patients, and Striiv, a smart pedometer device that tracks your walking, running, and stair climbing and sets fun, motivational fitness goals.
Stay tuned all weekend for more coverage of the conference, as well as demos and interviews!
For “liveblog” updates on Med 2.0, be sure to check out our twitter feed, @medgadget.