When NNM & CGC get into Health 2.0 & 3D SnowWorld
"A lot of user-generated health information is accurante" says the excellent article from the last edition Sept 8th of The Economist 
Technology Quarterly "HEALTH 2.0 " http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9719054 trying to answer the question about the outbreak of cancer videos, bulimia blogs and other forms of CGC medical information.
We can't ignore anymore the http://www.braintalk.com/ or the wiki dealing with it http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/ the Online Patient Support Groups for Neurology, where this type of communities started back in 1993 "but content now comes in different forms, such as blogs and videos... more than 20% of American internet users have created some sort of health-related content, according to Jupiter"... this is all about Web 2.0, CGC and nano-publishing . These tools provide a service to society and sciences society as raises "wisdom of crowds " !
According to the same article, a panel of neurology specialists judged that only 6% of information posted in the epilepsy-support group of BrainTalk was factually wrong (survey published in the British Medical Journal). "inacurrate posts on the website of the Association of Cancer Online Resources will be pointed out within 2 hours" points out Gilles Frydman...
What about then the outstanding researches done at the Harborview Burn Center, in partnership with Washington University's Virtual Reality Research Center and Imprint Interactive Technology enhanced the reduction of pain for a patient dealing with this 3D environment. The 3D online immersive game known as Snowworld, where the patient throws virtual snowballs...
"Delivering an engaging interactive experience during a wound care procedure, SnowWorld offers an interactive journey through an icy 3D canyon. The environment is populated with snowball wielding snowmen, flocks of squawking penguins, woolly mammoths, and other surprises. Patients are drawn into the action in SnowWorld , pelting anything they see with their own snowballs as they fly through the snow."
We still have a lot to discover of the benefits and powers of these new tools !
Cheers,
Gil
Mots-clés : Web 2.0
, The Economist , Snowworld , 3D , CGC , Health 2.0 , Blog , Wisdom of crowds , Washington 
But how wise are those crowds ?
Thanks Gilbert. The Economist goes into quite a lot of detail about different sites...
I think what we should be looking at is the fact that there are so many patients exchanging on their health problems...This is a source, as you put it, a fabulous 'crowd source' of info that pharmaceutical companies should pick up on both to innovate and experiment...extracting the info from these sites to work out exactly what the 'health consumer' needs in terms of information, medicine and advice might be a healthier way of dealing with this question...(rather than simply stating what % is accurate or not)
And then again, we are all human, and human's (particularly French humans) love talking about their health.