Barcamp - Healthcamp: Healthcare 2.0

This was a highlight of 2006 and just happened to make it onto my calendar upon a chance reading of a Stanford email list. On a Saturday morning at Citizen Space near South Park, stomach a group of 30-40 people showed up of their own volition to talk about how social networking, approved online communities and web 2.0 might change healthcare. We were a multidisciplinary group of doctors, capsule engineers, business people, social scientists, advertisers, marketers, writers and even a family who had lost their daughter to a rare genetic disease. Conversations were informal and fluid. If you wanted to talk about something, you threw it up on the white board and anyone who wanted to join you could do so. You could walk in and out of discussions freely without worrying about hurting anyone's feelings. I stayed till 4, others were there till past dinner. I tend to get downright sentimental about stuff like this - in an age of cynicism and disappointment with our healthcare system, this gathering was a little jewel of inspiration.