Online Communities For Physicians

#ffffff;" />obvious benefit is the capacity of these sites to
According to a recent MDsearch survey, physiciansfacilitate instant “curbside consults”
are no strangers to Facebook. Two-thirds of theamong physicians all over the country. Instead of a
responding physicians confessed to having Facebookphysician making a phone call to another physician for
profiles. Like the rest of us, they enjoy connectingadvice, doctors can turn to their online network and
with friends and family online. But do onlineget real time feedback from multiple physicians. In
communities appeal to physicians on a professionalthis way, online communities for physicians have a
level? The abundance of online communities fordirect benefit to patients.
physicians and other healthcare providers suggests aAdditionally, online communities provide a support
strong interest from the healthcare community, but issystem to busy physicians who don’t have
there value in these exclusive communities forthe time to attend conferences and other live
physicians? And are these online communitiesnetworking functions. These sites allow physicians to
succeeding in their efforts to attract physiciandiscuss common frustrations from the professional to
members?the personal.
So Many ChoicesFollow the Leader
The number of online communities for healthcareWhile there is an abundance of options for physicians
providers and/or physicians continues to grow. Theyseeking an online community, one network has
range from the truly exclusive sites like Sermo, anemerged as the clear leader – Sermo. Touting
online community with an extensive credentialmore than 112,000 physician members, Sermo claims
verification process, to DocsBoard, an online forumto be more of a voice for the physician community
requiring members to enter their license numbers, tothan the American Medical Association. This claim,
sites like Tiromed, which asks registrants to affirmalong with a somewhat controversial business model,
their physician or med student status on an honorhas kept Sermo consistently in the national headlines.
system. Other sites such as MedScape andWhile the network itself is exclusively for physicians,
medXcentral are open to physicians as well as otherSermo makes a profit by selling data to healthcare
healthcare professionals and do not require any proofcompanies who are interested in learning what
of professional status.physicians think. They also make public particularly
But the choices don’t stop there –interesting conversation threads – such as a
Check Out the Growing List of Online Communitiesrecent chain of posts from nearly 500 physicians
for Physicians:discussing the problems of maintaining a successful
•Clinical Village – online network forsolo practice. Sermo turned regarded the comment
medical communitythread as an informal survey and issued a press
•DocnDoc – online community forrelease announcing, “26% of solo practitioners
physicianspolled on Sermo have been forced to close due to
•DocsBoard – message boards forfinancial hardships."
licensed physiciansProviding this type of insight into the physician
•Doctors Hangout – online communitycommunity has proven to be a successful business
for medical students, residents, and physiciansmodel for Sermo, and because identities are kept
•DrConnected – online network forprivate, it doesn’t seem to concern the still
physicians and healthcare professionalsgrowing number physician members. But with Sermo
•iMedExhange – online community fordominating the online physician network space, how
residents, physicians, and retired physiciansare the other online physician communities faring?
•Medical Passions – online dating siteLike Sermo, MedScape claims over 100,000 members,
for the medical communitybut due to their open registration process, it is
•MedScape – online community forimpossible to know how many of those members
healthcare providersare physicians. On a smaller scale, sites with a distinct
•MedicSpeak – online community forniche seem to be faring well with the audiences they
medical students and physicianstarget. MomMD has over 8,000 registered members
•medXcentral – online community forand has established a solid reputation among female
all healthcare professionals, as well as healthcarephysicians. Online networks targeting specialists, such
recruitersas CardiologyRounds, are also gaining some traction.
•MomMD – online community forOn the other hand, it seems many social networks
women in medicinefor physicians could be here today and gone
•New Media Medicine – messagetomorrow. SocialMD, DoctorNetworking, and
boards for med school applicants, medical students,Healtheva have all been recently discussed as the
and physiciansnext big thing in social networking for physicians, but
•Ozmosis – online community foras of this writing they are nowhere to be found.
licensed physicians onlyConclusion
•Relax Doc – online community forIt seems the number of physicians joining exclusive
physicians onlyonline communities is on the rise. The advice and
•Sermo – online community forinformation resulting from the discourse within these
licensed physicians onlycommunities appears to be benefitting everyone
•StudentDoc – online community forinvolved – from the physicians themselves, to
medical studentsthe patients they treat, to the companies
•Tiromed – online community for“listening” to the conversations, to the
physicians and students of medicinepublic at large. For this reason, it seems these
Is There Value in Online Physician Communities?communities will continue to gain members. But will
Choices abound for physicians seeking onlineSermo remain the leader in this space, or will another
networking opportunities, but what exactly is thephysician community eventually take over?
value in these communities? Perhaps the most