Dr Google Redux
Earlier in the week I posted about the potential for established new media platforms to provide new forms of government service delivery (picked up on by Nick Gruen at Club Troppo). That post focused on ‘information therapy’; doctors helping patients care for themselves by providing information prescriptions over the internet. I mused that:
It’s easy to see how such ‘information therapy’ could involve connecting patients to online communities of patients with similar conditions, harnessing the ‘new cooperatives’ identified by Tom Watson MP.
Well, of course these communities are already thriving and waiting for government engagement. Coincidentally, I came across PatientsLikeMe today via Lifehacker. It’s a very impressive looking platform for communities of patients being treated for chronic conditions like ALS/Motor Neuron Disease, Depression, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), Parkinson’s Disease, and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
The site’s slogan is “Patients helping patients live better every day” and it’s easy to see the benefits that support networks like this could offer patients. As Lifehacker notes:
The purpose, then, is to allow users to interact with one another, track how treatments are working for other members, and explore the side effects patients are seeing with certain treatments. The site’s motto is
So the question is – Why isn’t government working with these online communities?
This isn’t cutting edge stuff. People across society are changing the way they communicate and associate and these changes offer real potential benefits in terms of the quality and efficiency of public service provision. Putting people in touch with already operating online support groups like this is the low hanging fruit of ICT public service provision.
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