Physician Social Network Continues To Grow

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Doximity, a social network for physicians, now boasts nearly half a million members.

Doximity, a social networking platform, has announced that more than 50 percent of U.S. physicians have joined the professional network, helping bolster the total number of members to over 400,000 doctors. The site promotes itself as a way to stay connected with colleagues, network with employers, earn CME, and send and receive HIPAA-secure faxes from mobile devices.

Doximity chief executive Jeff Tangney explained to The Washington Post, “Who really does need to communicate quickly, urgently, securely about how to solve a problem? It’s physicians. Right now they’re very siloed off.”

Tangney told Venture Beat physicians have a distinct need for a secure platform where they can communicate with their peers. They talk about a lot of things, from employment to health news to patient care issues.

Started just over three years ago, Tagney credits the explosion of the network to Doximity’s commitment to make physicians more productive. Every physician who joins also must have their identity verified before being given access to the site.

“The Internet is a tool that so far has been built for shouting for people to put it out there publicly on Twitter or Facebook or somewhere else. We’re teaching the Internet to whisper,” Tangney told the Washington Post. “Doctors do need to whisper about patients. They do need to be able to share and collaborate about a patient without everyone being able to see it.”

After doubling in 2013, Doximity says its growth accelerated in 2014 to more than 400,000 members now, making Doximity the largest secure network of doctors. The network was launched in 2010.

“We're excited about 50 percent – it's a huge milestone for us – but we still have a long way to go toward our vision of building a safe corner of the internet for clinicians to collaborate. Doctors deserve to have better technology than teenagers.” Tangney said in a press release. “Our dream is a day when physicians have better communications software than teenagers, but we still have a long ways to go.”

The service also now offers a public ranking of medical training programs, which can be used by med school graduates to choose a residency program.

“Vertical social networks are emerging as the new guilds in today's workforce. They give like-minded professionals the opportunity to connect and learn from one another in a safe environment tailored to their industry, without extraneous noise and distractions,” said Konstantin Guericke, co-founder of LinkedIn and Doximity board member, said in the press release. “Doximity has really taken the time to listen to doctors and has built a platform to reflect their needs. The company's growth is a clear indicator that they're onto something big.”