NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, SERMO—the leading social network for doctors worldwide—announced its latest international expansion, welcoming physicians from Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Greece and Hungary. SERMO is the largest global medical social network exclusively for physicians, with nearly 600,000 members in 30 countries.
SERMO is a virtual doctors’ lounge, teaching hospital and international medical conference that fits in a physician’s pocket. Doctors gather in this unique online meeting place for authentic discussions, virtual learning and medical crowdsourcing – a disruptive new healthcare phenomenon that enables doctors from across geographic borders and languages to pool their collective wisdom online to solve real-world patient cases. SERMO members have access to the largest online pool of international doctors, making crowdsourcing more effective than ever before.
“Our mission is to revolutionize real-world medicine – increasing the global footprint of the social network is central to that goal,” said SERMO CEO, Peter Kirk. “Practicing medicine in the real world is extremely complex and having a direct line to so many international experts for tough patient cases is game-changing. Members are increasingly interconnected, building relationships, and sharing clinical advice and insights across international borders. We’re so happy to welcome our new members to the community.”
The option of anonymity allows verified doctors to collaborate freely
SERMO
relies on world-class identity verification to validate a member’s
identity, maintaining the integrity of SERMO’s exclusive global
physician community. On SERMO, doctors can choose to share their
identity or to be anonymous. Most doctors choose anonymity, enabling
them to safely voice their opinions and to seek and share clinical input
with their peers without concern for repercussions.
International markets are ready for an international social network
The
appetite for international collaboration is strong, as demonstrated by a
SERMO poll showing 85 percent of international doctors want to join the
leading social network exclusively for physicians. SERMO first opened
its doors to international doctors in April of 2015, when physicians
from the U.K. expanded the network to just over 340,000 members. In June
of 2015, SERMO introduced doctors from Canada, and shortly thereafter
expanded to include South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland.
In October of last year, SERMO welcomed Spanish-speaking doctors from
Mexico and Spain, growing the network to just under 470,000 members, and
Italian doctors were introduced to the community in November. In
February of 2016, membership rose to 550,000 members with the expansion
to France, Finland, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru
and Israel. The network now operates in five languages, and cross-border
collaboration is happening at an increased rate every day.
When doctors need to make tough choices, they tap into the wisdom of
their peers
Until now, doctors have not had a virtual channel
to collaborate across borders. With differing medical practices across
the globe, the ability to exchange thousands of years of medical wisdom
with speed and security in a doctors-only social network is highly
valuable for physicians and has been shown to be potentially life
changing for patients. In August 2015, for example, a physician from
Canada asked for help with the case of a four year old girl who had
tested positive for a deadly strain of E. coli that had recently killed
her brother. Within a few hours, a gastroenterologist from the U.S.
responded. Shortly thereafter a South African general practitioner added
more advice. In the days following posting, the case was viewed over
1,200 times and 46 doctors from around the world, including
nephrologists, pediatricians and more, added to the thread. Following
the advice given on SERMO, the posting doctor treated the girl for two
weeks and she returned to full health.
“Real cases can fall in a grey zone. The ability to dialogue securely with doctors from other countries on those cases just isn’t something you can find elsewhere,” said Dr. Parag Kumar, a pediatrician from the U.S. “To be able to tap into the collective experience of peers from around the world and help real patients, fast, could be the difference between making the right diagnosis and the wrong one."
On SERMO, thousands of doctors have already experienced and benefited from the power of medical crowdsourcing. In 2015, doctors on SERMO posted 6,000 challenging patient cases. These cases were viewed 700,000 times and received 50,000 comments. Most patient cases get responses within 1.5 hours and are resolved within 24 hours. 86 percent of doctors who posted a case on site reported that they received the information they were looking for. A recent poll of 1,033 physicians showed that close to two-thirds of doctors believe medical crowdsourcing will become an important clinical decision support tool.
About SERMO
SERMO is the leading social network for
physicians – the world’s largest virtual doctors’ lounge where doctors
talk real world medicine. SERMO’s mission is to revolutionize real world
medicine by providing physicians a safe, private and trusted platform
for free and open dialogue on an unprecedented global scale. SERMO has
close to 600,000 fully verified and licensed members and is now
available for doctors in 30 countries: the U.S., the U.K., Australia,
Canada, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Italy, Argentina, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, France, Finland,
Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Israel, Austria,
Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Germany. SERMO is also the
world’s largest health care professional polling company with 1.8
million HCPs in both the social network and a digital research network,
spanning 80 countries. SERMO conducts 700,000 surveys a year.
Learn more at www.SERMO.com.
