Idea generation #42: Information gap in healthcare, mapvertising opportunity, connecting fans through tangible interface

Information gap in healthcare: This is great series of NYtimes articles examining the lack of evidence-based choice of treatment. One particular article on hip replacement pointed to the lack of a national database as the cause of rising problem of faulty replacements. The database acts as a early detection system for unproven products and missing such a system severely handicaps the abilities of doctors to know what works and what not.

A 2.0 solution is to create a community where users can input their conditions after certain medical treatment. The community can be seeded with opinions already existing in message boards and other communities. With such a community in place, the information it produces can be used by healthcare practitioners in general.

Mapvertising opportunity: I wonder if it is possible to create a plug-in where google map users can specific their map 'ad inventory'. An ad network can then pick up these inventory for processing and ad targeting. An adsense for maps. Worth a thought.

Tangible interface: This is cool idea! Embedding online media through a card interface is brillant. Imagine if we layer an authoring layer on top of this where fans can create, remix, mash and combine such cards for their favourite bands, artists, designers, celebrities, anime, game characters et al, we are enabling a new way for fans to connect to each other. If all these can be massively distributed through widgets at social networks, we might be able to give companies like Moo Cards a run for their money.

Posted in: advertising,healthcare 2.0,idea generation