I am relieved to have wrapped up the Third Healthcare Blogging & Social Media Summit in Chicago and gotten back to Bay Area in one piece. Before moving on with daily business, let me share a few thoughts.

First, I was very impressed (even surprised!) with the level of depth brought by our attendees in Chicago. Back in DC is Las Vegas we had so much more interest in the basics, with people wondering whether social media would ever matter at all. But now people were coming in to network and learn how to use social media in practical ways. Certainly the signs of maturation.

Now here is how each of our specific sessions went -

THE IMPACT:Rick Murray's keynote has proven without a doubt why he is the top social media guy at Edelman. That is through showing how the world of communications in changing, in turn transforming every industry including healthcare. My favorite factoid was Rick's observation how back in early 90ies he was brought it to turn around a company with 90% of revenue derived from making slides at $70 a pop. In a year PowerPoint kicked that number down to $5. Just think what this could mean in healthcare...

MYTHS vs. REALITY: My panel tried to make sense of how to tell real trends from hype. Joyce Flory, a pioneer of Web 1.0 arena (no less back to 1995!) reminded us how people used to say "content is king", "we need a sticky site" or "a flickering flame". How many of Web 2.0 buzzwords will be viewed the same way very soon? JSK then gave us a rundown of real healthcare trends over last few decades and I showed some Gartner hype cycle graphs, putting Web 2.0 last year right at the "peak of inflated expectations".

OPEN BRANDS: Fabio, David and Robin delved into the real meaning of handing over control to the people (do not call them "consumers" or "patients" or "audience"). Their panel examined two sides of the same coin - firstly how to engage the people interactively and secondly how to keep track of online conversations and respond appropriately. Of course the pharma's challenges of adverse event reporting reared their ugly head time and again.

READY, SET, BLOG: Toby, Elisa and Carol gave an in-depth how-to's on how exactly to start a blog and develop relationships with online communities. The audience was very involved in the discussion, showing how they are ready to move beyond the basics. If you are looking for some hands-on help with blogging strategy, I would heartily recommend Toby, Elisa or Carol as consultants. Carol also posted links to their presentations and blogs here at Trusted.MD.

HELPING HAND: We heard from companies developing specific tools for consumer health, including search, communities and Q&A. These things are starting to blur the line with social media and activity in this space will only accelerate. More in my take on Health 2.0 below.

INDUSTRY PANELS: On Day 2 we had three panels covering the impact and examples of social media in different sectors of healthcare, including hospitals / providers, pharma / devices and wellness / lifestyle. Great examples, great discussion, great participation of the audience.

How did our 3rd Summit feel overall?

Like a few good friends getting together again. But I must admit that the format we have now used for the 3rd time has run its course. When the conference was first conceived back in Spring 2006 there was nothing, zip, zilch about blogs and social media in healthcare's public eye. Our first step was to feel out where it is going to go. While the first event in DC was truly ground-breaking, in Las Vegas it was starting to get clear that we need to look broader to keep the excitement and keep people coming. Long story short, we are cancelling December 2007 event with Transmarx and starting planning of an entirely different conference for next year. Stay tuned!

Now my take on Health 2.0 conference in SF which I attended next

First of all, congrats to Matthew and Indu on getting some top healthcare thinkers and leaders to turn out in impressive numbers. No doubt, they generated some genuine excitement (perhaps bordering on giddiness?) with a well produced show. Plenty of people in healthcare have now for the first time learned about Web 2.0, setting them on the very beginning of a very, very long journey. Think the Internet industry circa 1994 when the expectations ran (v-v-very) high and nobody knew which approaches would win out and why.

But excitement aside what is the real "State of Health 2.0"?

To me it was very striking how the attendees and speakers stratified into three very different groups that did not mesh much. Perhaps this highlights the fault lines in Health 2.0 community, if there is such a thing. To summarize:

1. Big Internet Players: The whiff from the big guys was that online health consumer behavior is changing relatively slowly and the bulk of online activity is still very basic searching for static content. Keyword ads, banners and commerce is where the revenue is. Surprise, surprise...
   TAKEWAY: How is Health 2.0 really different from Health 1.0?
2. "Health 2.0" Startups: Startup panels offered a blizzard of demos but few were brave enough to talk about any metrics, least of all the revenue. Kudos on putting your ideas out there guys, but figure out how to make them sustainable as VC cash would last only so long. Esther Dyson said the same.
   TAKEWAY: Prepare for Dot-Com 2.0 boom & bust cycle
3. Traditional Healthcare: Institutional representatives on "Reactor" panels largely demonstrated they are not quite sure how to react. Interestingly, most of the audience polled said that they think "Health 2.0" would be subsumed into existing system, but we saw no indication how!
   TAKEWAY: Watch out for the real sleepers to wake up!

I took particular interest in speaking with companies on "Social Media for Patients" panel and this confirmed my general impressions that there is a long way before any sustainable and scaleable approaches emerge. Behavior change and mismatch between online content creator and healthcare consumer demographics (noted by David Brailer) seem like the biggest challenges to me. Most people still stick to old message boards and Yahoo Groups... We shall see.

Finally, a few (brief) words on what is next for Trusted.MD Network

I am relieved that with the conferences behind there are no distractions and we can now focus on getting our (long-promised) site update out. Expect us to address many of the points I have been blogging about and we are not quite done with events.

Meanwhile, keep an eye for announcements to our community!