Institute For The Future

A standout (?) among examples of Health 2.0 apps

The ReadWriteWeb blog offers this list of favorite Health 2.0 sites. Many will be familiar to HH members, but one relatively new entrant--Carol.com--stands out for being different. It is not a social networking site; rather, it is a health care marketplace. Limited in scope (for now) to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Carol allows users to compare health care services, practitioner credentials, quality dimensions, and costs—with or without insurance. On Carol,

Health care is sold in the Carol Marketplace in care packages—bundles of condition-specific services designed to treat everything from asthma to varicose veins. Care packages are created by clinical experts from each of the member institutions and include a range of traditional medical services that run the gamut from allergy evaluations to same-day surgeries. In the Web-based marketplace, consumers can compare diagnostic imaging packages such as MRI and CT scans, annual physical, dental and eye exams and the costs of physician-recommended services such as mammography or physical rehabilitation.

With plans to expand to additional markets in 2008, this model for empowering health care consumers and addressing inefficiencies in the current system will be worth watching.