I’ve been increasingly interested in health-focused social networks. Why? Because several recent scientific studies have found that real-life social networks are quite relevant to health. Indeed, a study published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluated a large social network of over 12,000 people over 32 years to assess the person-to-person spread of obesity [1]. The study results suggest that friends, siblings and spouses have an even greater effect on a person’s risk of obesity than genetics.

What’s interesting is that this type of research is being done now, when the use of web 2.0 services facilitating collaboration and sharing between users on the internet is thriving. We’re witnessing an explosion of social networking sites, many of which are focused on health.

Elsevier, a leading publisher of over 400 medical and scientific journals serving more than 30 million scientists, students and health and information professionals worldwide, has initiated a beta test program called Patient Research. The program gives patients, family members and caregivers access to medical articles to help them understand their health issues.

Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

• New Pew Study Shows Patients Turn to Internet for Health Information; Now Can We Get Docs to Do The Same? | The Health Wisdom Blog

  The internet is changing the way patients not only get information but the way they interact with doctors and their families. Unity Stoakes discusses one of the major healthcare challenges today – lack of a credible online resource for physicians to recommend to their patients.

• Introducing . . . The Digital Health Revolution | HealthCareVox

  Fard Johnmar introduces a new bi-weekly program he’s hosting that will chronicle how the Internet, computers, mobile phones and other technologies are impacting health globally, with a major emphasis on social media (blogs, podcasts, social networks).

• The e-Patient Revolution | HealthDot @ ScribeMedia.Org

  One of the first episodes of The Digital Health Revolution featuring Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet & American Life Project discussing the e-patient revolution.
  To view all episodes, visit the Digital Health Revolution home page.

• Ability to email Your Doctor Improves Care | Comments on the e-Patient Revolution

  Charlie Smith MD writes about a recent study in Pediatrics showing that patients who were allowed to email their doctors improved their perceptions of care.

• Medical 2.0 – A new health 2.0 directory for all of you | Medical 2.0

  Uri Ginzburg introduces a new directory resource that aggregates medical and life science applications, platforms and websites that are based on web 2.0 tools.

• The first Journal dedicated to Personalized Genetics? | ScienceRoll

  Berci Mesko writes about BMC Medical Genomics, a new open access journal that will publish original peer-reviewed research articles on functional genomics, genome structure, genome-scale population genetics, epigenomics, proteomics, systems analysis and pharmacogenomics in relation to human health and disease.

• Why Do People Enjoy Being Frightened? | Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason

  Next week is Halloween. Dr. Val discusses the reasons why people enjoy being frightened. Boo!

I’m hosting this weeks edition of Medicine 2.0, the bi-weekly blog carnival of the best posts pertaining to web 2.0 and medicine.

I’ve published Medicine 2.0 #10 – Medicine and the Second Generation of Internet-based Services over at the Highlight HEALTH Web Directory. I’m working a project there involving web 2.0 and health, fitness and medicine, and I thought it would be a great resource to supplement the other articles being developed. I’ll fill you in on the details of the project soon.

The past two weeks were rich with medicine 2.0-related articles and there are almost 40 blog posts included in this weeks edition. I intentionally kept my comments short so that you can focus on the content of each article. I’ve organized the articles into a number of categories, including:

• Medicine 2.0, Informatics and Personal Health Records
• Web 2.0 Tools: Blogs, Video and More
• Health 2.0
• Social Health Networking
• Medical Science, Biotech and Healthcare

I hope you enjoy Medicine 2.0 #10 – Medicine and the Second Generation of Internet-based Services. The next edition of Medicine 2.0 will be hosted at The Health Wisdom Blog on Sunday, October 28th, 2007.

Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

• What is alternative medicine, anyway? Rumble in the Jungle | WhiteCoat Underground

  In Part I, PalMD tried to define alternative medicine. Part II was an attempt to clarify Part I. With Part III, it’s personal. Simply a must read.

• Doctor Anonymous Live on BlogTalkRadio

  Dr. Anonymous streams live every Thursday night at 10 PM EST. Call in or chat live. Don’t miss it!

• Health 2.0: Explosion | Scott Shreeve, MD

  Scott Shreeve highlights a few video feeds from the Health 2.0 conference. The first video — the conference opening presentation — is awesome.

• Combining OA journal articles and social networking tools | Open Access News

  Peter Suber reports that BioMed Central, an open access publisher of biomedical literature, has added an option to post articles to social networking sites. BioMed Central is one of several public access resources I mentioned previously.

• The 10 Rules of Aging Well | Mark’s Daily Apple

  Live well and age gracefully. Mark gives us the 10 rules to live by.