Presentation first given at the Digital Health Summit Turkey, Istanbul, December 17 2015. Focus of the presentation is the emerging role of physicians' social networks in supporting national health reform programmes and managing pandemic threats.

1. Physicians’ social networks
A new tool in global health
Len Starnes
Digital healthcare consultant
Digital Health Summit Turkey
Istanbul
17 – 18 December 2015

2. What are they?
Communities of authenticated
medical professionals

3. Why do doctors use?
Trust in confidentiality
of closed networks
Seeking 2nd opinion
on diagnoses & treatment
Monitoring latest
research findings Discussing health
policy issues
Catching up
with colleagues
Participating in
CME programmes

4. 1
Global
dimensions
Pandemic
threats
3
Health reform
programmes
2

5. Global
dimensions

6. 9 years of sustained growth
20102007
> 140 networks
> 7m HCPs
Aggregate global
membership
2016
5m
10m
Based on annual stated membership numbers 2007 - 2016
1st network
2007: Sermo

7. 9 years of sustained growth
20102007
> 140 networks
> 7m HCPs
Aggregate global
membership
2016
5m
10m
Based on annual stated membership numbers 2007 - 2016
1st network
2007: Sermo
> 140 networks
> 5.5m doctors

8. Asia Pacific inc
China, Korea, Japan
> 5m members
EU, CEE, Russia,
Americas, inc Mexico, Brazil
> 2m members
Asia Pacific
dominates
Sales

9. USA
Only the paranoid survive*
Continuous innovation
New players
Expanding globally
* With thanks to Andy Grove

10. Doximity
Sermo (US/global)
Physician Connect
Healtheva
Relaxdoc
SocialMD
Clinical Village
iMedExchange
Ozmosis
Medical Plexus
Within3
Rad Rounds
MyPacs
MedTrust
MedicSpeak
NASS Spineconnect
QuantiaMD
MDsConnect
Mdlinx
CareConnectix
Medversation
Student Doctor Network

11. First HCPs-only community
Pioneers in services & business models
500k members globally

12. First HCPs-only community
Pioneers in services & business models
500k members globally
Overtaken in US
by Doximity
2014

13. 66%
US doctors using
500k members
Focused on mobile
usage
Secure
HIPPA-compliant
P2P communications
Jeff Tangney, CEO
ex CEO Epocrates

14. North/South divide
CEE countries surging
Driving global alliances
Europe
Heterogeneous

15. Doctors.net.uk (UK)
Coliquio (D,CH,AT)
MedUniverse (SE)
Medcenter (ES,P)
Konsylium24 (PL)
DocCheck Faces (D)
MedOnline (AT)
Terve (FI)
Esanum (D,AT,CH,
F,ES,IT)
Docactus (F)
Egora (F)
iVrach (RU)
Doktorsitesi (TK)
Univadis (global)
doc2doc (UK/Global)

16. Largest in Europe
Over 90% UK doctors using

17. Driving
global alliances

18. Largest in Turkey
Physician driven
Patient orientated

19. Asia Pacific
Turbo-charged
Breakneck growth
Gargantuan
membership
numbers

20. Haoyisheng (Good Doctor) (CN)
dxy.cn (Lilac Garden) (CN)
China Asthma Alliance (CN)
China obgyn.net (CN)
Orthochina (CN)
Indiaheartbeat.com (IN)
Doctors Hangout (IN)
Doctor.VG (IN)
Medtitans (IN)
Protomedica (IN)
DelloDr (IN)
Smartdoc (IN)
M3.com (JP)
MedPeer (JP)
Carenet (JP)
NM Online (JP)
MT Pro (JP)
Medigate( KR)
eHealthspace (AU)
New Media Medicine (NZ)

21. China
Largest and
most innovative

22. Haoyisheng
Over 2m members
Serves 6,000 hospitals,
13,000 health centres

23. Column2 Hospital doctors
47%
Pharmacists
6%
Senior nurses
41%
Medical technicians
6%
Haoyisheng membership status September 2011
Almost 50%
doctors

24. MENA region & Africa
No national or regional networks

25. Health reform
programmes

26. Major benefits
Accelerate
dissemination of
medical expertise
Extend medical
expertise from urban
to rural areas
Support national
CME initiatives

27. Leading to
Improved
health outcomes
Lower health
service costs

28. Haoyisheng actively supports
Chinese HC Reform
Delivers over
1,000,000
CME modules/year
on evidence-based
medicine

29. Network proposal to support
KSA Health Reform*
Public/Private partnership
Integration with clinical
& admin workflows
Interoperability with EHRs
Comprehensive CME
resources
*Presented at 5th Saudi eHealth Conference, Riyadh, 18 – 20 November 2014
http://www.slideshare.net/lenstarnes/saudi-e-health-conf-nov-2014public-final24-nov

30. Pandemic
threats

31. Same health priorities
Same health system
Same language
2007 – 2010
Doctors strongly preferred
national networks

32. Ebola
Avian influenza
SARS
Antibiotic-resistant
microorganizms
Middle-East
respiratory
syndrome
coronavirus
MERS-CoV
Cholera

33. Dr James Wilson
Director Centre of Infectious Disease Forecasting
University of Nevada-Reno
‘
’
Ebola and the recent measles
epidemic have shown us that
disease outbreaks have no
borders…

34. ‘
’
Contagion travels at jet speed
between busy airports
*A geometric approach to network-driven contagion phenomena,
Dirk Brockmann, http://rocs.hu-berlin.de/projects/hidden

35. www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)00946-0/abstract

36. The most egregious
failure was by WHO in
the delay in sounding
the alarm…
Ashish K. Jha
Director Harvard Global Health Institute
‘
’

37. One thing is clear: we need to
decentralize information and have
open discussion with the world's
frontline healthcare providers
Dr James Wilson
Director Centre of Infectious Disease Forecasting
University of Nevada-Reno
‘
’

38. Argentina
Australia
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
Ireland
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
UK
USA
Cross-border P2P
communication is here
2015

39. Solving difficult patient cases
Education on new medical
techniques & approaches
Safe place to talk with other
physicians
2015
Attitudes shifting towards
use of global networks*
*Based on Sermo survey of 1360 physicians in 7 countries, 2015

41. Global
crowdsourcing
in action

42. Decentralize information
Connect the right information at the right time
with the right people
Increase resilience
Bypass official alerting & response mechanisms
Eliminate 'politics'
Remove threat of 'being wrong' for health officials
who are politically exposed
Social networks enable

43. …communication between doctors in
the face of the next global health
crisis will not only be of utmost
importance, it could be the key to
saving lives on a truly massive scale.
Dr James Wilson
Director Centre of Infectious Disease Forecasting
University of Nevada-Reno
‘
’

44. lenstarnes@gmail.com
T: + 49 30 781 5513
M: + 49 172 1788253
Skype: lenstarnes
www.linkedin.com/in/lenstarnes
www.twitter.com/lenstarnes
www.slideshare.net/lenstarnes
Len Starnes
Len Starnes Digital Healthcare
Research & Consulting

45. A sincere thanks to the following for their
support in developing this presentation
• Dr Erden Asena
Founder & CEO DoktorSitesi.com
@doktorsitesi
• Dr Linda Girgis
Family physician, New Jersey, USA
@DrLindaMD
• Dr James Wilson
Director, Centre of Infectious Disease Forecasting, University of
Nevada-Reno
Co-Founder and Director, Ascel Bio National Infectious Disease
Forecast Station
@iceaxe5