I had the opportunity to attend and speak at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, California, last week. It was amazing to see all the attention that is being focused on how to use the web to improve healthcare. It was particularly impressive to see how people had come not only from all over the U.S. but also from all over the world to see the latest web innovations for patients, caregivers, and health professionals.

In one session, I sat next to a doctor. I asked him his specialty and he said he was in family practice. Imagine that, a family practice doc sitting in a conference to hear how his patients can now access more information about their health conditions and treatment options than ever. He was impressed and concerned. He worried a little about self-diagnosis and people perhaps pursuing treatments unnecessarily. But he was also impressed with the way patients can be more educated and more connected with others who can encourage healthy behaviors.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing about the conference was how prominent diabetes is is this whole conversation. Many sites (including the one that I presented www.DiabeticConnect.com) are geared specifically toward helping those whose lives have been touched by diabetes. But beyond that, when Google and Yahoo were presenting examples, they very often chose diabetes as the case study of how patients access health information on the web.