Second Life now Utilized to Disseminate Health Care Information

As a health care provider, I was fascinated to discover that many governments, health care agencies, and private groups are increasingly using Second Life as a medium to communicate health-related information.

A study that analyzed the depth and breadth of this information (using the second life search engine), categorized all health care related activities into five groups: education & awareness, support, training, marketing, and research. The education sites offered information on many health topics and links to other websites. The support sites provided direct access to doctors, other health care professionals, and peer-support groups. The training sites were directed primarily to people in the health care industry and consisted of classrooms, lectures, simulations, etc. Some even offered real academic credit. The marketing sites mainly promoted health care services, fundraising, and health care initiatives. The research sites were used as recruiting tools for health care research.

I would expect the support and marketing sites to me the most useful. The peer support communities offered in second life can offer the anonymity and supportive functions of a real-life group in addition the convenience of the internet. Health problems are extremely sensitive issues and many people may feel more comfortable interacting with people through Second Life than any other medium. In this sense Second Life truly adds to the health care community. The marketing sites also seem important, because it allows for special groups to be targeted. This, however, is less unique given the use of social networks such as facebook.

The other sites do not seem as unique given the vast amount of health care services dispersed throughout the rest of the internet. For example, as search engines became more sophisticated, the availability of health information increased dramatically. Second life adds to this availability, but it does not appear to provide more accurate or appropriate information.

Talk about the end of privacy...

If you thought what Facebook is doing with selling our profiles to advertisers so they can target us better, how about Google's new investment in healthcare: 23andMe? It's a self-administered genetic test you can get online for $999 and mail in your spit so that you can learn about your genes and your families' genes (and so pharma companies can advertise to you better).

See the full article in the IHT: DNA testing comes for the masses

Health as a Social Bond

Here's a community idea that actually makes sense: it's not just another MySpace clone. PatientsLikeMe aims to build communities around "life-changing diseases". I think this is a great idea for a lot of reasons.

Above all, it's a great cause - which also makes for a highly motivated community. Anyone who has been seriously ill knows the first thing you do is seek out the experiences and advice of others - not raw medical knowledge, but how people like you have coped and adapted to the impact of this kind of thing. Sadly, the information out there tends to be clinical - raw medical definitions and info - or downright depressing. The people who post tend to be the most awful stories - not those who would form a natural support group.

That these communities can share support and stories of coping, as well as information, is heartening. It also, quite frankly, makes for a lucrative demographic for medical marketers. People with life changing diseases often have lifelong medical needs or special needs of some sort: diet, travel, etc. So it would seem to be a good cause and a good business.