Returning to Boston each April for Patriots’ Day has become something of a ritual for me. On Monday, I’ll be lining up on the starting line in Hopkinton for my 12th straight Boston Marathon (that would just be getting warmed up for the likes of Ben Beach, whose streak has been running 3 decades longer).

But this year, the marathon is just a warm-up for a more unique experience — the first-ever “Health 2.0 Meets Information Therapy” conference.  In the virtual spontaneous combustion that transpires in preparing for an event like this, it’s hard to step back and think about the big picture of the conference.  Finally, with the plane having returned to the gate for a maintenance check, I’m going to take a few minutes to put a few of these thoughts down here.

I owe a thank-you to Scott Shreeve, facilitator-extraoardinaire, for getting my mental juices flowing on this account. On Thursday night, he asked me and my two co-conveners (Matthew Holt & Indu Subaiya) what our vision was for the “Great Debate” he’s moderating on “Building Health 2.0 into the Delivery System.”  In a late-night frenzy, I typed (somewhat free associating) into the laptop my vision for the last session of the first day:

500 people will walk out into the cool Boston air, stroll through Back Bay with colleagues grappling with how Ix can help integrate Health 2.0 strategies into the delivery system. They should approach the question with a sense of realism of the challenges but optimism of the potential.  They should have new ideas that are ready to jumpstart a conversation with colleagues “back home.”  They should be ready to actually take action in changing how they deliver health care.

I’ll admit that’s a lot to ask for 90 minutes.  But I honestly think we have a shot at it — maybe not for everyone there because different people have different reasons for coming, but for enough that we can truly spark some game-changing momentum in health care delivery.

The world of patient-centered care, consumer engagement, patient empowerment, and robust new technologies are coming together at this point in history, and the potentially synergistic movements and communities of information therapy (Ix) and Health 2.0 are merging for two days in Boston to catalyze change.  It’s time to see what can happen.  Fasten your seat belts!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Engaging Consumers, Health 2.0 Space, The New Health Care Consumer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.