Do Doctors Twitter?
Do they Pownce?
Are they LinkedIn?
Are they on Facebook?
Publishers want to positively impact the practice
of medicine by providing physicians with accurate information when, where, and
how it’s most useful to them.
When you listen to doctors, and when you observe
them, one point is very clear.
The first place a physician goes to ask a question
is to a colleague.
So… does that colleague need to be right next to
them?
Couldn’t they be using a social
networking tool?
Why couldn’t communities of physicians be formed to
address the medical inquiries of other physicians (via web, cell phone, or any
wireless device)?
Security could be built in (identity and
credential verification). Communities
could be moderated by an expert.
Let’s go one step further.
Journals have editorial boards.
Why not allow physicians to subscribe to
those boards (or new groups created for this purpose) and have the output of
the board’s effort be a journal and
moderated live interaction with physicians?
Those interactions could be stored and queried,
yielding a knowledge base and a source of future publications.
More important, physicians would get the personal
attention they seek from a colleague and be able to forge new relationships
with others in their network.
Couldn’t that positively impact the practice of
medicine?
Good point. If the sites are there for chats – who has the time for that?
Working with publishers, we’re always looking for meaningful point of care applications – to help physicians get the information they need right away.
I was thinking that if social networking tools “morphed” into a closed network of trusted advisers, perhaps a physician would be willing to ask for meaningful (immediate) clarification on an issue they’re facing. Kind of like putting an expert (or a group of experts) right next to them when they need answers.
Thanks for your insight!
Ann
I “lurk” and check out what is on the minds of physicians, rather than actively network! It’s mostly a matter of priorities for me – I don’t have the time. Which makes me wonder if these sites are going to survive!
Hi Philippa!
Nice to “see” you again.
I think it’s great that these tools exist! I wasn’t actually suggesting that docs Twitter as much as wondering aloud what kind of apps they could use and if they would use them if they existed. It’s great to see that things are being developed.
Do you use any of these tools yourself?
They actually have several new social/clinical networking sites:
RelaxDoc at http://www.relaxdoc.com (I have a podcast with the MD founder at http://www.entrepreneurialmd.libsyn.com)
Clinical Village at http://clinicalvillage.com/
and Sermo at http://www.sermo.com.
I guess the idea is that doctors mostly like to hang out with each other!!