Countdown to HealthCampNash and HealthCampMd

This Saturday May 30th is HealthCampNash. This will be my first visit to Nashville. I am looking forward to the event. Every HealthCamp has a local personality and it will be fascinating to see how the Nashville event unfolds.

Work is also underway for HealthCampMd which is taking place on Friday June 19th. The Maryland camp represents the first anniversary of this HealthCamp series so lets look at the history of the past year.

The premise of HealthCamp is simple. It started after attending the Web 2.0 Expo in early 2008. At the Expo there was very clear interest in discussing the implications for Health Care through the application of Web 2.0 tools and technologies.

HealthCamp was created to continue that conversation.

The question at the heart of HealthCamp grew out of those discussions at the Expo and the Health 2.0 definition that emerged from a series of blogposts by Dr. Ted Eytan. That definition still strikes a chord today:

Health 2.0 is participatory Healthcare

Enabled by information, software, and community that we collect or create, we the patients can be effective partners in our own healthcare, and we the people can participate in reshaping the health system itself.

The question posed by HealthCamp is this:

How can we transform Health Care on a participatory basis using Social Networking, Open Standards, Open Source and the best that the Web and Mobile Internet has to offer.

The HealthCamp events of the last year started with HealthCampMd on June 14th, 2008 on the Owings Mills campus of the newly instituted Stevenson University.

Following on from this event came HealthCampDc, in Washington DC (September 12th) and HealthCampNy the following week as part of the Web 2.0 Expo. Then came HealthCampSf (October 24th), in San Francisco, as part of Health 2.0 Conference. 2008 was finished off with HealthCamp going international at HealthCampUK (November 10th) in London.

2009 has been just as busy with events being held in :

• HealthCampDc, Washington DC, Friday Feb 27th, 2009
• HealthCampPhila, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2009
• HealthCampBoston, Boston, Ma, April 21 2009 as part of the Spring Health 2.0 Conference
• HealthCampSf, San Francisco, March 31-April 3, 2009 as part of the Web 2.0 Expo
• HealthCamp Azerbaijan Baku, Azerbaijan May 23-24th

The second HealthCampUK is also taking place on the same day as HealthCampMd. We are aiming to have a video hook up between the two events. So come along on Friday June 19th and join in an exciting event as HealthCamp enters a new chapter.