Web 2.0 Summit

The first panel I watched was The Future of Health, featuring Carol McCall of Humana Inc., Joanna Mountain of 23andMe and Daniel Kraft of Stanford Medical School. In it, they each discussed the current trends in medicine - a "long tail" of personalized, niche-oriented medical assistance online. Daniel mentioned that more people use the internet to get health information than from their actual physician, citing that one out of three web searches are related to peoples' personal health. He said that sites like WebMD and other health-related websites help personalize wellness activities, making it simple to troubleshoot most symptoms. For example, he talked about a site where users can check their blood pressure online, without going into a clinic. I have no idea how that would work, nor could I find it online...

Meanwhile, Carol focused on the importance of retaining physicians to translate important health information, such as genetic code or specific diseases that the layperson could not understand...definitely understandable, but maybe a small plug for health insurance too (Humana perhaps??). However, one interesting trend that Daniel mentioned was a virtual reality surgery program that clinic teams use to actually simulate an operation, able to add hypothetical malfunctions aimed to relieve stress when they physically go through with the procedure. Another trend that Joanna sees, that 23andme uses, is the idea of transparency. She discussed the importance of allowing the user to realize that not everyone knows exactly what works and what doesn't in the medical field and that all experts may necessarily agree on evaluating research results or how they make decisions.





The second panel I watched was Cloud Computing: The Future Web, featuring CTOs Padmasree Warrior of Cisco Systems, Inc. and Shane Robison of HP. They initially discussed the idea of a federal CTO and exactly what would go into that job, assuming Obama actually chooses one, and then they talked about cloud computing. Mainly, the panelists agreed that cloud computing is the next evolution of computing and technology and that it can be used in more ways than we can even realize at this point. Currently in its early stages, they likened cloud computing to how the Internet was initially formed: many different "clouds," both large and small, operating in and of themselves. However, Padmasree's prediction is that the "tipping point" (when cloud computing will really take off) will occur once private and hosted clouds move to what she calls the "Intercloud," a cloud which connects all other clouds - much like how the Internet works today. However, this will require much standardization and collaboration among companies in many, many headaches and years to come.

Padmasree mentioned two main benefits that large companies can currently see from cloud computing: (1) flexibility and (2) the speed of developing applications. These two results of working in the cloud will spur innovation like we've never seen. As it is, she mentioned the nature of work is changing into a much more collaborative environment - a place where "we don't go to work anymore, we just work." As cloud computing evolves, we will see much more of this cloud networking, like Cisco's innovation, Telepresence which combines video and social networking. Now called visual networking, Padmasree says we're just at the tip of that.

Shane discussed in more detail what we do with the innovations in cloud computing, such as how we think about those business decisions and what it means to the customer/business/technology relationship. He discussed the importance of using cloud services to navigate the information and how to make use of it, as opposed to simply ways of getting data. For example, by using a program called Brain information can be used to predict prices of commodities or the outcome of future events.


While the topics of these two panels were very dissimilar, they overlapped on several levels. It seems like the way health is advancing online is definitely toward a very personal and focused environment, and the nature of cloud computing absolutely parallels that. While I don't see people going to the "online physician" for a checkup, the Internet provides a level of accountability that is required for people to feel taken care of. For example, instead of going to one checkup a year, patients can receive daily "checkups" via the web. Of course, replacing physical checkups with innovations like Telepresence, would be crazy. However, using video and web-based technologies to provide a more interactive experience than simply looking up information on WebMD or Wikipedia is absolutely where the medical field should begin. Doctors could really use cloud computing to collaborate with other doctors, or even share information more fully and efficiently toward new techniques or specific diseases.