The book moves on to consider the development of ‘Health 2.0’ in a chapter contributed by Denise Silber. In the 'eHealth' movement, patients are empowered by the wealth of medical information available online, giving them the chance to be more proactive in their own treatment through, for example, online interaction with patient communities, access to research and advice, and in some cases direct contact with their medical personnel. Health organisations are asking two different types of questions: do health 2.0 and social media have a favorable impact on health outcomes, and does social media facilitate effective communication campaigns for organisations and brands? Silber acknowledges that there are more questions than answers, but argues that healthcare and medicine must study and invest in health 2.0, or be left behind.
In the last part of the book, Hervé Basset considers the impact of social media on the pharmaceutical industry, and in particular on the industry’s approach to digital marketing, and highlights the risks associated with social media engagement in a highly regulated and risk-averse environment. He looks forward to 'Pharma 3.0', taking in the importance of semantic search, the likely impact of enterprise 2.0 platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint, and collaborative platforms enables by big data, cloud computing, and mobile devices.
Basset concludes with a look forward to 'the next 3.0' – Science 3.0, Pharma 3.0 and Publishing 3.0 – based on the assumption that open innovation and crowd collaboration will disrupt traditional business models. He sees a future where collaborative consumption will transform drug and journal makers into service providers. "Maybe 'science as a service' and 'medical information as a service' will become the future paradigms of the strategies of STM publishing and big pharma respectively".
This book acknowledges the difficulty of commenting on a rapidly changing technology environment, "In telling these stories we take the risk of becoming immediately obsolete," as Basset points out. And there are also many competing definitions of the '2.0' and '3.0' concepts which make it difficult to marshal accurate comparison points or benchmarks. This book acknowledges that Science 2.0 has not dramatically changed scientific debate to the extent that some expected, but argues that it has at least driven "a deep evolution of the science communication."
From Science 2.0 to Pharma 3.0: Semantic search and social media in the pharmaceutical industry and STM publishing is pubished by Chandos. For more information see the publisher's website.
Image courtesy of Horia Varlan via Flickr.