Definition of Health 2.0: a Systematic Review
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Abstract
Background: During the last decade, the Internet has become increasingly popular and is now an important part of our daily life. In the Netherlands, the Internet is even more popular than traditional media like television, radio, and newspapers. Furthermore, the impact of the Internet and other technological developments on health care is expected to increase. When new “Web 2.0†technologies are used in health care, the term “Health 2.0†may be used.
A clear definition is important for the development of new Health 2.0 or Medicine 2.0 initiatives and also for the comparability of new developments in research.
Objective: To identify definitions of Health 2.0 and to gain insight in recurrent topics of Health 2.0.
Methods: A systematic literature review of electronic databases (Pubmed, Scopus, CINAHL) and grey literature on the Internet using the search engines Google, Bing, and Yahoo was performed to find unique definitions of Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0. We assessed all literature, extracted unique definitions, and selected recurrent topics by using the constant comparison method.
Results: We found a total of 1937 articles, 533 in scientific databases and 1404 in the grey literature. We selected 46 unique definitions for further analysis, and identified seven main topics: Web 2.0/technology, patients or consumers, professionals, social networking, health information/content, collaboration, and change of health care.
Conclusions: This study showed that the use of the terminology differed between the definitions mentioned in literature. Forty-two definitions comprehended the term Health 2.0, and 10 definitions mentioned Medicine 2.0. Six definitions described Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 as equal. Thirty-six definitions only mentioned the term Health 2.0, and 4 definitions only described Medicine 2.0. Although some authors indicated that little or no differences existed between the two terms others described important differences; Medicine 2.0 is focused on the relation between professionals and patients whereas Health 2.0 is focused on health care in general. As most definitions described Health 2.0, this term may be more widely used and accepted than Medicine 2.0.
Health 2.0 is still developing. Many articles concerning this subject were found, primarily on the Internet. However, there is still no general consensus regarding the definition of Health 2.0. We hope that this study will contribute to building the concept of Health 2.0 and facilitate discussion and further research.
A clear definition is important for the development of new Health 2.0 or Medicine 2.0 initiatives and also for the comparability of new developments in research.
Objective: To identify definitions of Health 2.0 and to gain insight in recurrent topics of Health 2.0.
Methods: A systematic literature review of electronic databases (Pubmed, Scopus, CINAHL) and grey literature on the Internet using the search engines Google, Bing, and Yahoo was performed to find unique definitions of Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0. We assessed all literature, extracted unique definitions, and selected recurrent topics by using the constant comparison method.
Results: We found a total of 1937 articles, 533 in scientific databases and 1404 in the grey literature. We selected 46 unique definitions for further analysis, and identified seven main topics: Web 2.0/technology, patients or consumers, professionals, social networking, health information/content, collaboration, and change of health care.
Conclusions: This study showed that the use of the terminology differed between the definitions mentioned in literature. Forty-two definitions comprehended the term Health 2.0, and 10 definitions mentioned Medicine 2.0. Six definitions described Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 as equal. Thirty-six definitions only mentioned the term Health 2.0, and 4 definitions only described Medicine 2.0. Although some authors indicated that little or no differences existed between the two terms others described important differences; Medicine 2.0 is focused on the relation between professionals and patients whereas Health 2.0 is focused on health care in general. As most definitions described Health 2.0, this term may be more widely used and accepted than Medicine 2.0.
Health 2.0 is still developing. Many articles concerning this subject were found, primarily on the Internet. However, there is still no general consensus regarding the definition of Health 2.0. We hope that this study will contribute to building the concept of Health 2.0 and facilitate discussion and further research.
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