Emerging Health Communities on the Healthcare Marketing & Advertising Radar. Web-savvy Physician's View from Health 2.0

By Stewart Gandolf, Chief Executive Officer

Healthcare Marketing 2.0 Conference

It's safe to think of Doc Gurley as web-and-tech-savvy. She's the only Harvard-trained and Board-certified practicing Internist that we know of who has a website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, blog...and a column at sfgate.com.

That's not your every-doc CV, so we thought this was a well-qualified observer who posted an exceptional (and detailed) recap of the forward-looking online health communities presented at last week's Health 2.0 conference.

(FYI: Health 2.0 Conference is about "cutting-edge technologies in health care, including Online Communities, Search and lightweight Tools for consumers to manage their health and connect to providers online.")

The link to Doc Gurley's sfgate.com column [Health 2.0: Can you have a doctor visit on Facebook?] follows, and recommended reading about some of the new and/or emerging models. They're candidates for everyone's healthcare marketing and advertising radar.

* OB/GYN: Facebook page that's HIPPA-compliant portal

* Patient Community Pages: ACOR and PatientsLikeMe

* Health Info Data Mining: First Life Research

* Delivery-Embedded Models: dLife and iWantGreatCare

* Facebook Game: Healthseeker

* Plus: Apps, Twitter Feeds, and Smartphones

We're not sure where she found the time to write a comprehensive 3,000-word article, but you can read the full text of Doc Gurley's column here.