MEDICINE 2.0: A SURVEY OF THE USE OF MEDICINE 2.

0 SERVICES
AND TECHNOLOGIES AMONG SAUDI DENTISTS

Asma, N. Al-Otaibi
IT-King Saud University
Riyadh, K.S.A
alotaibi.asma@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Web 2.0 technologies have played a huge role in the development of mostly all fields of life including health
care. Medicine 2.0 technologies have made life easier in terms of services, research and information
communication, for health consumers, patients, medical professionals and nursing staff. Dentistry is an ever
changing field. Medicine2.0 can help dentists get updated and improve their knowledge and skills. This paper
talks about some examples of theses services and technologies and how much Saudi dentists use and get
benefit from them.

Keywords
Medicine 2.0, web 2.0, web2.0 technologies, web2.0 services, dentistry, dentists.

1. INTRODUCTION
Web 2.0 technologies and services play an effective role in all fields generally and medicine and healthcare
people specifically, from here the medicine 2.0 is so termed. In this paper, some technologies and services of
web 2.0 in medicine and their examples are discussed. The survey results of Saudi dentists of how much they
get benefit and advantages from medicine 2.0 are also discussed.

2. BACKGROUND
Web 1.0 users follow links to content, whereas now with Web 2.0 users comment, edit and create content.
“The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive
International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was
more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's
more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that
the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as Web
1
2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born.”
Web 2.0 is a collection of (mostly) free web services including Web based community sites, blogs, wikis, social
bookmarking, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS), since Medicine is an ever changing field, those services
and technologies have become applied to the medical field, and from here the term “medicine 2.0” appears
world wildly. Medicine 2.0 is the direct result of utilization of Web 2.0 technologies in medical science.

2.1 What is medicine 2.0?

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The First Mini-Conference in Web Technologies and Trends (WTT)
© 2009 Information Technology Department, CCIS, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
1
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html(19thDecember2008)
Medicine 2.0 simply is the use of web 2.0 services and technologies in the medical field that interest everyone
from health and medical professionals to patients and caregiver, to the businesses (pharmaceutical
manufacturers, health insurance) which support them. [1]

2.2 medicines 2.0 Features:

These are some of medicine 2.0 features:
 The user creates the content and plays a huge role in its development, medical staff: doctors, patients
and all healthcare professionals write and exchange information and make use of lots of experiences
of one another. Thus, this process has made it much easier for people around the world to easily and
quickly access and get this information.

 Participation and cooperation in the videos uploading, each doctor uploads medical materials, such as;
medical surgeries, explanations and cases.

2.3 Web 2.0 services and technologies used in Medicine:

Some technologies and services of web 2.0 and some examples of their use in the medicine are discussed
below:

2.3.1 Technologies:

a) Podcast
(A podcast is a portable audio file) that you can listen to while working.
“The term podcasting derives its name from Apple's iPod, but to create a podcast or even to listen to one, you
don't need to own an iPod, or any portable music player for that matter. In a nutshell, Podcasting is a new type
2
of online media delivery.”

b) RSS
It is a way to quickly find out new information on the internet. (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication).
“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news
headlines, audio, and video in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed”,
or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web
feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to
subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS
feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-
based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and
3
viewed by many different programs.” Medworm is an example of RSS Aggregators

2.3.2 Services:

a)Social Networking:

2
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/20/WhatIsPodcasting.html?page=1#heading2(19thDecember2008)
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS(19thDecember2008)
in order to get to know physicians from around the world and exchange information or keep in touch with your
colleagues in the medical field e.g Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn. Web 2.0 is based on communities and
collaboration, so that patients can find online support groups, join health communities or just read about their
medical problems described by others. Physicians can also join medical communities, upload their CV and find
collaborators from around the world, or find a job via this community. [2]

b) Social Media:
Social media refers to any media shared online (e.g., videos, music, photos, news, etc e.g; Labaction: which
provides free sources of latest information, news and videos on all specialized medical subjects. E.g
YouTube, SlideShare and MedicalVideos.us are also great collection of medical educational videos and
lectures. Athedoctorschannel is another example of a web site that allows doctors to learn from each other at
their convenience. This time-saving site includes short one- to two-minute streaming video clips designed to
get to the point, with insights and opinions. [3]

c)Social Bookmarking:
“Social bookmarking allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from
anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much
more flexible system than folders
Delicious can be used by medical professionals to bookmark websites for future references, share them with
4
colleagues or with medical students or residents for teaching purposes.”

d) Medical Blogs:
“A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. A
5
typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic”
“(web log or internet diary) provide content and express opinion on healthcare that you can never find in a
6
medical paper” . Blogs function as a forum for discussing questions and answers, exchanging experiences
and interaction with others in similar problems so that patients, physicals, and other healthcare professionals
get advantages and benefits. The following are examples of blogs by Healthcare Professionals:
-www.casesblog.blogspot.com: medical commentary and clinical cases by physicians at Case Western
Reserve University that includes clinical cases and Images.
- www.codeblog.com: includes stories from a nurse.

e) Medical Search Engines:

Medical search engines use sources and sites selected by the most related, reliable and trusted medical
information of the best quality, in contrast to many general search engines like Google, yahoo which display
some results that can’t be relevant. E.g pubmed, Healthline, Omni Medical Search, Google health and
Microsoft HealthVault. [4]
Google Health: Google Health is a complete free and safe and secure engine that allows you to store and
manage all of your health information in one central place, keep your doctors up-to-date, stop filling out the
same paperwork every time you see a new doctor, and avoid getting the same lab tests done over and over
again because your doctor cannot get copies of your latest results and not to lose your medical records
because of a move, change in jobs or health insurance. All you need to get started is a Google username and
password. With Google Health, you can: build online health profiles, import medical records from hospitals

4
http://medicineandman.com/meditech/online_bookmarks.html(19thDecember2008)
5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog (19thDecember2008)
6
http://scienceroll.com/2007/06/08/10-tips-for-how-to-use-web-20-in-medicine/(19thDecember2008)
 and pharmacies, learn about health issues and find helpful resources, search for doctors and hospitals and
connect to online health services [5]

3-Methods
An e-mail containing a link to the questionnaire URL was sent to a convenient sample of Saudi dentists in
Riyadh. The 75 dentists were asked if they use the following web services and technologies: RSS, social
networking, social media, social bookmarking, Blogs and search engines. They were also asked to select the
most beneficial technologies they use.

4-Results
Of the 75 dentists mailed, 51 responded (response rate of 68%).Most (80.4%) dentists indicated that they use
Medical search engines (41dentists).Seventy per cent of the dentists use social networking. Around half of the
sample use social media and medical wikis. Thirty nine per cent use medical blogs. Eleven dentists (21.6%)
use the RSS. The least used web 2.0 service was social bookmarking (17.6%).The results are summarized
table 1 and figure 1

Table 1. The percentage that dentists uses web 2.0 services and technologies.

do you use do you use do you use Medical

do you use social social Social Search Medical Medical
RSS media bookmarking Networking Engines Podcasts wikis Medical Blogs

% % % % % % % %
yes 21.6% 54.9% 17.6% 70.6% 80.4% 25.5% 49.0% 39.2%
no 78.4% 45.1% 82.4% 29.4% 19.6% 74.5% 51.0% 60.8%

Figure 1. Dentists use of web 2.0 services and technologies.

Most of the participants (68.6%) agreed that medical search engines are the most beneficial services. Around
twelve per cent chose Medical wikis. Around six per cent and eight per cent of the respondents selected RSS
and Social media respectively. One dentist chose Medical Podcasts as one of the most beneficial services.
None of the participants chose social bookmarking or medical blogs. (See table 2) and (see figure 2)

Table 2. The most beneficial medicine 2.0 indicated by dentists in frequency and percentage.

Frequency Percent
Valid RSS 3 5.9
social networking 2 3.9
Social media 4 7.8
Medical Search Engines 35 68.6
Medical Podcasts 1 2.0
Medical wikis 6 11.8
Total 51 100.0

What is the most beneficial web 2.0 technologies and services in the
medicine?

RSS
social networking
Social media
Medical Search Engines
Medical Podcasts
Medical wikis

Figure 1. The most beneficial web 2.0 technologies and services in the medicine indicated by dentists.
5-Discussion
Internet is very important source of information specially for the medical and dental field. Dentistry is updated
continuously with new treatments and discoveries. One study conducted in Saudi Arabia found that Two-thirds
(68.8%) of pediatric dentists used the Internet for professional continuing education or for reading journals. [6]
There are no studies in Saudi Arabia regarding the use of medicine 2.0 among dentists. This study provided
information about the use of medicine 2.0 services and technologies among Saudi dentists in Riyadh.

The majority of the sample use Medical search engines and they consider them the most beneficial services.
Medical search engines are used because it’s quick, easy and trusted. Seventy per cent of the dentists use
social networking. It is a good way for dentists around the world to get to know each other. None of the
participants consider social bookmarking or medical blogs as beneficial services, although 17.6 % and 39.2%
use them respectively. This is because dentists may not trust medical blogs and they do not know the social
bookmarking well.

6-Conclusion
Web 2.o is very important to health care personnel and those who are interested in the medical field, its
technologies and services have enlarged the medical horizons and knowledge.

In the present study, the majority of the dentists use medical search engines as one of medicine 2.0 services
and they consider them the most beneficial services.

7-REFERENCES
[1] Eysenbach G, Medicine 2.0: Social Networking, Collaboration, Participation, Apomediation, and Openness.
J Med Internet Res 2008;10(3):e22
[2][4] SCIENCEROLL. Located on the Internet at http://scienceroll.com/2007/06/08/10-TIPS-FOR-HOW-TO-
USE-WEB-20-IN-MEDICINE/. Last visited: 19 December, 2008.
[3] SCIENCEROLL. Located on the Internet at http://scienceroll.com/2007/08/29/SITES-OF-
MEDICALSCIENTIFIC-VIDEOS-THE-LIST/. Last visited: 19 December, 2008.
[5] GOOGLE. Located on the Internet at http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/about/index.html
Last visited: 19 December, 2008.
[6] Amjad H. Wyne, Hashim Nainar: Survey of Internet usage among pediatric dentists in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Dental Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2, May - August 2002.