Whither Health 2.0? Recent failures cast shadows…

Aug 9, 2008

As we hear more and more about various Health 2.0 company launches, its interesting to see what’s happening to the first wave of companies claiming they would change healthcare (post the Web 1.0 pack including Healtheon/WebMd, HealthMarket, HealthAllies, etc.)

As I posted recently, Revolution Health appears to be going the way of Steve Case‘s previous company AOL. Traffic has tailed off (yikes! that looks scary) and the company’s hired a bank to explore options. Given that they’re not IPO or acquisitions, its a safe bet to assume that management doesn’t see much opportunity in the property.

Recently checked in on Xoova (formerly Doctors Direct), which I hadn’t heard much from in 2008 and their website hasn’t come up in a few days. Have they joined the deadpool? Anyone hear anything from them of late?

Even Sermo, which rocketed to 70,000 physician profiles hit some bumpy patches, as their initial monetization approach appeared similarly intrusive to the Facebook Beacon model. Ahhh, the smell of pharma money and what it does to customer value propositions…long term impact TBD, but the company claims it hasn’t hurt growth to date…

Things appear to be going better in the world of dentists, where ZocDoc (former colleagues of mine at McKinsey) appear to be growing into new verticals and are talking of expanding out of Manhattan. However, it looks like they may be the next generation of 1800 Dentists, as their affiliate fees would indicate come interesting per-lead revenue from the dentist market.

Commission Structure
Dentist Appointment
$13.50 Completed Appointment Commission

Dermatologist Appointment
$10 Completed Appointment Commission

Primary Care Appointment
$3 Completed Appointment Commission

I’d be curious to hear which Health 2.0 companies that have launched in the last few years appear to be gaining traction.

It will also be interesting to see what business models emerge from Health 2.0 (and are included in that definition). Jay Parkinson‘s Hello Health certainly isn’t an ad-supported web company, but an interesting hybrid between web tools and physical practice. Health Shoppr, which will launch by end of year is focusing on the cash-pay market (a la Expedia) to bring service, niche specialization, and reputation into the health care discussion in a mix with pricing.

Its a big space with many problems. Should be interesting to see where the solutions emerge…and the dark horses attack the flanks.