The next trend in social health may be medical curation. Published health information is expanding at a rate that none of us can really understand. Yet despite this embarrassment of riches, access to reliable, actionable information for patients is variable. Search is a dubious avenue to health
information.
So where is a patient to turn?
The answer may lie in health curation. Curation is the active and selective collection of content. Curation is not search. Curation is not aggregation. Curation is not automatic. Curation isn’t a 4-hour workweek scheme.
Curation requires a capacity to separate the reliable and accessible from the rubbish. In health it this would seem to require two elements: 1) expertise in the area under curation and 2) clear understanding of the needs of the reading patient. E-patients can’t do it alone. Doctors can’t do it alone.
While health aggregation portals are a dime a doze, I can find few examples of health curation done right. I have concerns about the potential influence of pharmaceuticals in some of the sites I reviewed.
If you do nothing else read Steve Rubel’s landmark post on the matter. He doesn’t mention healthcare but the concept would seem to represent the critical missing link in the future of health literacy.
As Rubel reminds us, demand will never scale to match supply. The future belongs to those who can help address the attention crash.
Who will create the definitive collection of the infosphere’s greatest health content?
{ 3 comments }
Curation isn't just a trend – it's necessary.
What I think is happening now, is that real-time media are making it clearer that unless we have curated streams of content, we will enter a dangerous time for discovering reliable health care content.
Curation was always necessary – it's just that now bad content can spread as fast (in fact usually faster) than good.
So, yes, curation is a huge opportunity for developers to roll out social software where trusted communities can cultivate and grow and influence.
Important post!
@PhilBaumann
http://Twitter.com/PhilBaumann
Of course I agree with you and Phil on this. Curation adds value to the stream. Twitter Lists is a good example of this and will become more important as the stream grows.
Thanks for your comment, Phil. I should say that when I refer to trend I mean pattern, not the glib use of the vernacular where it can mean superficially fashionable. I might step out on a limb and suggest that health curation may not best be done as a crowdsourced activity.