A revolution in health care?

Steve Case, the billionaire former chairman of AOL-Time Warner, has decided thar's gold in them thar health care hills. So he's invested in RediClinic, a burgeoning chain of retail clinics, and has poured more than $100 million into a 2-year-old company called Revolution Health. The firm recently launched its centerpiece, the website RevolutionHealth.com. The aim of this site, according to Case, the firm's chairman and CEO, is to pull together the best healthcare information on the Web in a way that's "compelling and useful for consumers who want to take more control of their family's health."

Among the features of RevolutionHealth.com are content from the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and Harvard Health Publications; women's and children's health information; a health risk assessment instrument; user-created content; and online ratings of doctors and hospitals, "complete with objective information about results and patient-provided 'ratings' about providers' responsiveness, 'bedside manner' and patient interaction."

Revolution Health has also acquired Care Pages, which operates patient support sites for various conditions, and has formed partnerships with iVillage, the AAFP, Columbia University Medical Center, and others.