The other points you raise are very important and not specific ones I would have ever thought of. They point to the general concern about sharing private information publicly. If you share information at a party, people may or may not spread that information via rumor or even putting up online, although the latter’s less likely.

If, however, you put that information out online, that’s a permanent written record that’s publicly accessible forever. One might feel differently (or not) about sharing that information ten years later than they do today.

I also love the McLeod quote. After having seen the quote by Jen when she originally posted it – I used it in a meeting with my partners the following week to discuss strategy on new areas of law that we need to be focused on as a firm.

Couple of other points that I will raise as we consider the shift in a willingness to share (or not share) personal health information. First, one development that impedes sharing info more openly is our employer based health system. There are many people out there concerned that their health info might be used against them in an employment context (even though we have laws to protect against such use). Moving away from a system were our employers provide, monitor, self administor, etc. would be good for health care. Second, what impact will genetics have on the health privacy question. As we move to more genetic testing for preventative care what will happen with the privacy risk/reward balance. What if my genetic markings show that I will get cancer at age 45, be predisposed to have a stroke or have a heart attack. How valuable would this info be to my employer? my bank who wants to make me a 30 year loan for a new house? etc.

Two things you wrote were really eye opening:

1. I hadn’t really thought about the disclosure of health information in terms of classic risk / reward and now I’m hitting myself in the head for not being smart enough to do so. What can I say? I play with rocks. There definitely isn’t enough in it for me at the moment to put out a call for serious health questions on twitter, but that might change if there were. Of course, I worry about stuff like reputation management and how that stays online forever (even in direct messages for those twitterererers out there unless you’ve set your profile to private), so it’ll be a big hurdle for me personally. But like I tell clients, if you’re offering $250 million, people will submit their ssn’s, driver license #s, and a dna sample online.

2. Segueing into Eric Schmidt’s comments that you reference, it is completely different today for most consumers. Few people of a certain age think twice about entering a credit card online, both enticed by the power buying online gives them and sufficiently convinced that their privacy is protected.

Finally, I would be remiss not to copy the McLeod quote in full from Jen’s site since we’ve both referenced it:

“Head for where the puck is headed, not where it is…” – Hugh McLeod

Thank you to everyone for the great comments. Now let’s go Pens, Nailers, and Commodores!

I love that McLeod quote which is spot on and Jen McCabe Gormen’s post above. I believe this is a standard Risk/Benefit or Cost/Benefit relationship. Right now there is a cost or risk to sharing personal and private health information (which may be a greater fear than actual risk, but that is another issue), but today, there is little benefit associated with that cost. but those times are obviously changing, and the benefit of using your health info to gain knowledge and understanding is growing, as are privacy/permission systems to ease fears. few years from now, we will be surprised at the instinct to keep all of our health info obsessively private (although, obviously some info will always remain private). we will gain tremendous benefit from personalized services that tap our personal info for great individual benefit and will wonder what we did without them. Eric Schmidt made the wonderful analogy at his HIMSS speech in February 2008 comparing this phenomenon to use of credit cards online 10 years ago–tremendous fear, people did not do it, but now it is commonplace and taken for granted, due to the benefit confered by buying things online, and improvements in security.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZKNcx9sBA

Today people cannot envision the benefit they will gain from divulging their info, because the tools and killer apps dont yet exist, so they are very hesitant to give up the info. But once the apps are there, the Cost/Benefit ratio will shift, and people will gain comfort with actively using their health info online.

Maybe you’re right. I’m seeing more and more people profess their political beliefs openly (something I don’t and won’t do). I’ve always been a bit of a Luddite.

Not yet you aren’t…but I think you will be. (See 10-80-10 rule on Health Management Rx: http://healthmgmtrx.blogspot.com/2008/06/healthcare-for-middle-80.html)

Health, like our political leanings, outfits, and food choices, is becoming part of our personal life narrative, and thus part of the personal discussions we’re moving online/mobile.

Health is intensely personal. So is dating. So is what we wear, watch, and read. Health/wellness platforms and killer apps that take this into account and provide protection concurrently with the opportunity for permission-based, situationally oriented revelation will win. But they’re largely not here yet (although sites including Patients Like Me are a good start).

Here’s one question specifically for health issues, though, and it’s based on no research, just how I personally communicate:

Most of the people using twitter (and having personal or professional success with it) tend to be pretty social, I would argue. They (and I, although I’m a little more introverted than extroverted) will ask for directions, good places to eat in a new town, ideas for how to cut hair on a wig, etc.

Won’t a lot of people view health concerns as more personal? I would probably be more open to tweeting a question about what to do if my baby’s fever wouldn’t go down, but I don’t know that I’d want the whole world to know that I had a growth or something more serious. Am I in the minority?

I think it’s Tim O’Reilly who says there are trends that are 10-15 years out for early adopters of new web-based tech…

Like I used early search engines Dogpile and About.com in college (1998ish), I’d say we’ll see *increased* adoption of using these types of social networks to answer our questions.

Semantic search technologies like those used by iMedix.com are in fact actively sending out search queries to community members.

In essence, we had first the info web (search engines, static). Then the social web (communities, chatrooms, listserves) and now I think we’re seeing the functional web (not my insight alone, certainly – lots of much smarter tech people making this observation) where these two things will be used to do/buy. Health is a bit behind here, but not much.

This is nothing new, though, right? Same purpose (pose questions to a group of trusted friends/colleagues/family members) – all that’s changed is the channel.

Just like I’d ask my best friend for a recommendation on an OB/GYN in Baltimore if we were sitting in the city having dinner, I’ll ask my tweetstream to help me find health data online.

One of the amazing things about this group is it includes patients and practitioners, so there’s an interesting osmotic flow of information across ‘closed’ membranes effect.