Medical experts wanted

By now, I think that it is safe to say that Wikipedia plays a ubiquitous role in the world of online information. This is even true for health information. At our Spring 2007 conference on Biocitizens and New Media Technology, Health Horizons Program Director Rod Falcon noted in his presentation that, "Wikipedia is the most frequently cited source [of user-generated health content] and appears on the first page of 63% of health searches" (emphasis is mine--I marvel at this phenomenon). 

A new player will soon be entering the field of online medical information: MedPedia.

Regular strength or extra strength? Drowsy or non-drowsy formula? Brand name or knock off?

These are the questions I often find myself pondering as I stand in the cold medicine aisle at my local drugstore. This morning, Rod Falcon, Director of the Health Horizons Program, dropped a good old-fashioned newspaper on my desk that announced a solution to these dilemmas. Evincii, a Mountain View, CA, startup that has been in (mostly) stealth mode since 2005, has now formally unveiled its in-store, interactive, over-the-counter (OTC) drug information kiosk.

Retail DNA

Navigenics is not the only company to market consumer genetic testing (see 23andMe and deCODEme), but it may be the first to do so in a retail setting (at least one as trendy as Manhattan's SoHo District). The New York Times has a short piece about Navigenics' temporary storefront in SoHo.

The continuing challenges of RHIOs and EHRs

In August, I wrote about the demise of the Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) in Santa Barbara. In January, the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) published a discouraging report about these collaborative health information technology (IT) offerings.

More on the accuracy of online health information (and a digression into Web 3.0)

Last week, I posted an entry about a recent study reported in Cancer about the accuracy of health information available online. Today, there is news from the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. Its latest report posits that information prominently displayed in search engine results is often not only misleading and confusing, but also potentially dangerous for patients.

A step forward for Google Health

It's been a while since I have written about Google's efforts to become the home for people's personal health records (see this post, for example). So I am pleased to finally report some news on that front.