Social network for doctors SERMO has expanded its network to 260,000 Mexican and 232,000 Spanish doctors as it strengthen its footprint as the largest global social network exclusively for physicians available now in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US.
The Power of Medical Crowdsourcing
SERMO is a unique resource for doctors serving as a place to consult with hundreds of thousands of peers from around the world on patient cases (medical crowdsourcing). Doctors have the option to share their identity or remain anonymous creating a safe place for authentic discussions, virtual learning, asking for help and providing insight.
“Before SERMO, doctors did not have a virtual channel to collaborate with peers across borders,” said Peter Kirk, CEO of SERMO. “With differing medical practices around the globe and lots of remote areas where there are a low number of specialists, the ability to exchange medical wisdom with speed and security in a doctors-only social network is highly valuable and potentially life-saving for patients. SERMO provides instant access to doctors in nearly100 specialties and subspecialties.”
SERMO is in the midst of a global expansion, beginning with countries where it has offices. With longstanding teams in Puebla, Mexico, and Barcelona, Spain, it was only natural for the network to make Spanish its first foreign language.
The Mexican market can benefit from an international medical social network
According to a recent study sponsored by Health Interactive Services, 76 percent of Mexican doctors use the internet to find information about health conditions, making use of major search engines and medical libraries. And, according to global digital PR agencyWe Are Social, 46 percent of Mexicans are using social networks. SERMO is a combination of a virtual teaching hospital and a digital doctors’ lounge allowing doctors to access what they can’t google – providing them with multiple expert opinions and thoughts at the touch of a button. With SERMO, they can benefit from their peers’ real life experiences and access a wealth of medical information.
The Spanish market is ready for digital global collaboration
The Spanish population is just as active on social media as Mexico’s with almost 50 percent having an account on a social network according to We Are Social. An Accenturestudy, ‘Insight Driven Health,’ revealed that Spanish doctors are also big adopters of health information technology and are using health information exchanges to share electronic medical records to take better care of their patients and reduce medical errors. Now they can add SERMO to their toolbox to tap the knowledge of doctors around the world, not just in their networks, to help them even more.
SERMO has added translation functionality to its website and mobile app to allow Mexican and Spanish doctors to engage in every conversation happening on the network.
Cross-border collaboration by doctors will ultimately improve patient care
“Medicine isn’t clear cut,” said Spanish physician Federico Relimpio. “We need to be able to ask one another for advice from time to time. SERMO gives us a vehicle to get that guidance from doctors around the world.”
“Oftentimes there is a shortage of certain specialties in a particular village or geographic region,” said Mexican physician Priscila Gómez. “Through SERMO, doctors can reach other physicians of all specialties. It’s simple and can be done quickly, which is essential when dealing with patients who may live far away from clinic and are unable to come back for a follow up.”
SERMO is the home of medical crowdsourcing and collaboration on the site and app has already helped improve and save patients’ lives. Some physicians even call the site “addictive.”
In 2014, 3,500 challenging patient cases were posted by doctors in the US. 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.
Some examples of where lives were saved through medical crowdsourcing include:
– A general practitioner posted a photo of a mysterious branch-like mass on SERMO and reported that a 14-year-old boy had coughed it up just the day before. After tapping SERMO’s network, the community correctly identified it as an extremely rare and deadly case of plastic bronchitis. The doctor then took the advice of his peers to get the boy to a cardiologist as soon as possible, ultimately saving the boy’s life. Other doctors learned from the case, which has been viewed nearly 4,000 times.
– A general practitioner posted a case where a boy died from a strain of E. coli and his sister was presenting with the same symptoms. After diagnosis, the doctor asked his colleagues for help with follow up treatment and ideas for identifying the source of contamination. Forty-six unique doctors helped save the girl’s life by participating in the conversation and the post was viewed by 1,253 doctors around the world.
“We are proud to have created a network that is making a real difference in patient care and look forward to seeing more of this important collaboration around the world,” said Kirk.
