See: The State of the Facebook Platform | 20bits. The number of active users has declined 27 % since January. Early adopters are leading the pack out.

I deactivated in December, 2007 (See: “I deactivated my Facebook Account, is LinkedIn Next?“), reactivated for a few days earlier this year, and then deactivated again. For good.

I did cancel my LinkedIn account, too. As I discussed in a post about it, if everyone has their own blog and RSS feed we can just communicate through those.

And I still think every patient should have a blog that their physician has access too through the electronic health record.

Over at one of my favorite blogs, e-patients.net, e-Patient Dave is starting a dicussion about what Health 2.0 “is;”: e-patients: Participate in defining “Health 2.0″

I started things off with a definition based on one created by The Economist, which I’ll repeat here:

Health 2.0 is the transition to personal, participatory health care. Everyone is invited to see what is happening in their own care and in the health care system in general, to add their ideas, and to make it better every day.

Feel free to suggest your improvements here, or there. I enjoy the idea that patients like Dave and readers of e-Patients will create improvements that can be incorporated.

If someone asked you, “What is Health 2.0?” Would you feel comfortable answering with the definition above? If not, how would you change it? Be sure if you would to tell a little bit about “why?” The story of how we get here is as important as the where we got to.

The Genie Industries video is especially compelling because everything they discuss is applicable in health care. What if we substituted “patient care” for making scissor lifts - we would see huge strides in improvement. Also, just upgraded the software that powers this blog. Viva open source.

• Genie Industries, Spotlight - A nice video of Genie Industry's work promoting LEAN and the customer focus in its manufacturing efforts
• Popularity Context Plugin Fix for Wordpress 2.5 -
• The Wisdom of Patients: Health Care Meets Online Social Media - CHCF.org -
• From Al Gore?s Chief Speechwriter: Simple Tips for a Damn Good Presentation (Plus: Breakdancing) - Great advice on giving presentations. The one I like best - it’s not about you, it’s about the audience.