"Health 2.0" is a term describing the impact of blogs, social networks, specialized search engines and other online trends in the world of healthcare. Many people believe that Health 2.0 websites and technologies will revolutionize the way patients and caregivers gather, share and act on medical information.

At online communities like Revolution Health (www.revolutionhealth.com), Daily Strength (www.dailystrength.org) and Psych Central (www.psychcentral.com), patients can get detailed up-to-the-minute news, join support groups, start a health journal, share their stories, give recommendations on doctors and facilities and more.

One Health 2.0 site that has generated a lot of fanfare is Revolution Health, created by the founder of America Online (AOL), Steve Case.

“I think the healthcare system in this country is just screwed up, and we need to bring a fresh approach to put the consumer back at the center of the healthcare system,” Case says. “When I had a brother diagnosed with a brain tumor, I realized how scary and complicated the system is. The whole system is overly complicated – frightening, even – for consumers, and we want to change that.”

Health 2.0 communities help people connect with others who have similar interests or who have received the same diagnosis. In this kind of supportive environment, patients can explore medical information, as well as their own feelings, at a level not possible in visits to the doctor, especially since doctors must often schedule their appointments in 15-minute increments to manage their heavy patient loads.

On community websites, patients can also discuss important issues that their doctors aren’t necessary familiar with, such as the comparative costs of various healthcare options.

Major organizations like the American Cancer Society and the Centers for Disease Control are getting involved in online communities as well by making top-quality information morereadily available than ever. “We’re trying to leverage social networking for health promotion,” Adam Pellegrini of the American Cancer Society told the Wall Street Journal. “Everything is based on communities now.”

Indeed, doctors now have their own communities, like Sermo (www.sermo.com). Patients, meanwhile, can rate doctors, hospitals and nursing homes at sites like HealthGrades (www.healthgrades.com).

Even Microsoft has jumped into the game. In October 2007, Microsoft launched HealthVault, a website that allows users to gather, store and share health information online. Consumers can upload their medical data, such as their personal medical records and prescription history, which can then be shared with physicians or health management websites.

HealthVault is an important step toward empowering consumers to manage their personal health. Google is planning a similar offering in the near future; as Google representative Marissa Mayer recently said at a healthcare conference, “Google is not a doctor, but people come to us with a lot of health information searches.”

The number of searches for medical information on Google and other search engines is increasing rapidly. According to recent a Harris poll, 71 percent of American adults use the Internet to search for health-related information; this number is continuing to increase. Specialized search engines like OrganizedWisdom (www.organizedwisdom.com) and my own site, eDrugSearch.com (www.edrugsearch.com), have emerged as part of this trend.