---
title: "Web 2.0 Meets Medicine: Focused on Communication"
date: 2008-02-19
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2008"
    url: "/tag/2008.md"
---

# Web 2.0 Meets Medicine: Focused on Communication

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20081231003150im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/web_doctor.png)Bertalan Meskó from the excellent ScienceRoll blog has [uploaded a presentation](https://web.archive.org/web/20081231003150/http://scienceroll.com/2008/02/16/web-20-and-medicine-the-slideshow/) he gave recently at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference. The presentation, embedded below, is a great overview of how the Web is being utilized in the medical profession.

I was particularly interested in the story of Dr Jay Parkinson, a Web-savvy doctor. He has an impressive [website](https://web.archive.org/web/20081231003150/http://www.jayparkinsonmd.com/), where he describes himself as “a new kind of physician”.

He invites prospective patients to contact him via IM or even videochat; and he has a [blog](https://web.archive.org/web/20081231003150/http://blog.jayparkinsonmd.com/). In one post he clarifies that his Web activities are all about [communication, not diagnosis](https://web.archive.org/web/20081231003150/http://blog.jayparkinsonmd.com/post/25602457):

> “People don’t understand that I use the internet to communicate, not diagnose. I communicate with my patients via the internet and see them in their apartments.”

That suggests that we’re still at the early age of Web-enabled healthcare, if it’s still focused on enhancing communication and ***not*** delivering healthcare via the Internet. Still, it’s encouraging — check out Bertalan’s presentation below to see how the Web is currently being used in the world of medicine. The activity in Second Life is quite advanced, including “virtual experiments”(!)

See also the [Medicine 2.0 blog carnival](https://web.archive.org/web/20081231003150/http://scienceroll.com/2008/02/17/medicine-20-at-home-again/) of web 2.0 and medicine, which has loads of links to check out.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_20_meets_medicine.php))*