While working for Humana I had the good fortune to work on the FreeWheelin project.  Based on synthesizing some of our different Insights, we developed the idea that bike sharing could be a very powerful way to connect with people.  Just think about it, biking is not only healthy, it happens to be good for the environment.

After an intial pilot in Louisville, we launched a much larger pilot at the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention.  As part of this launch we developed a pretty extensive social media strategy to help support the project. You can see some crowd sourced photos, see the cumulative impact and read some tweets. We leaned heavily on the basic rule, go to the people, don’t make them come to you.

Ultimately the launch was very succesful.  Not only did we get Humana a ton of great press, we also made a pretty significant impact on the participants.  This lead to two extensions.  The first, Humana established a JV with Trek bikes to take the concept of FreeWheelin to a commercial venture, bCycle.  Additionally Humana continues to invest in FreeWheelin for philonthropic reasons, strengthening their commitment to better health and a better planet.

A couple months ago I went to the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.  While I generally find these sorts of events to be worth only the new technologies you find, I was particularly disappointed by the presentations and the tone of the event.  Generally web 2.0 is acknowledged to be a collection of technologies that turn consumers into producers and connect people for conversation.  The conference was really just a compilation of electronic medical records companies and web enabled medical tracking in some form.

While I suppose electronic medical records will potentially result in some phantom savings, they are hardly anything that should be considered Web 2.0.  So far, my favorite example of Web 2.0 and health is Crossfit, a community of niche fitness aficionados.  This  is a great example of communicating, sharing and pushing each person to newer and higher goals.  Affiliates and members post videos of exercises, of personal records and different methods for laddering to higher results.

Interestingly they have made community a part of their business model.  Not only are there companion sites, againfaster.com is an example, but to be an affiliated gym you need not only certified trainers, but you also need to have a community website.  So, as Crossfit grows, so does their online community.

Take a look.  This is the sort of stuff that is health 2.0, not an EMR.

Recently Robert Scoble disclosed on FriendFeed that he has a rare kidney disease. It is an inherited disease, his father had it, and can be managed to being a chronic nuisance by changing diet.  Interestingly, what the post did prompt was a further discussion on why privacy is dead. Working for a health insurance company we have all sorts of privacy issues, mostly governed by just plain ethical common sense, but also specifically enumerated through HIPAA and the Patient Safety Act.  These are important pieces of legislation, but I wonder what will happen as a generation of people who view privacy differently.  Think about how Facebook, Twitter and many other social networks have made what were usually, private exchanges to be public.  Think about how people are ready and willing to trade their own privacy for group support and the wisdom of crowds?  Individual choice of disclosure is at the heart of privacy (full disclosure I am a member of the ACLU ).  However, I’m with Scoble in thinking that many people are going to choose to go public with their health because it is just the way the operate in every other part of their lives. These sorts of disclosures and the questions they raise can only be helped by having prominent people (yeah, so Scoble is only prominent in nerd town, but that’s a pretty big place these days) jump in the deep end and start paddling.

Scoble is not alone either. Steven Pinker seems to be taking it to the extreme by making his own genome public. Nick Jonas of Jonas Brothers fame has disclosed his being diabetic.

I’m reminded of the Reason Magazine cover for June 2004.  For each subscriber a custom cover was printed that pictured a satellite photo with their house, school, institution or whatever circled.  Maybe a little spooky, but the message was clear.