Rashi Chandra, Innoplexus, Pune, India Gunjan Bhardwaj, Innoplexus, Stuttgart, Germany Gaurav Tripathi, Innoplexus, Pune, India Track: Business Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for health professionals Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2012-06-18

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Social Media has greatly transformed the landscape for research, information accessibility, networking and collaboration of the healthcare industry. While patients have long been pioneers in social media, health professionals have been slower to adapt. However, today more and more health professionals are looking for latest information, opportunities of networking and collaboration in a moderated and secure environment of social media platforms. The popularity of mobile devices, easy to use apps and mobile internet has further accelerated the adoption rate in healthcare industry.

The biggest hindrance in social media acceptance in the healthcare community has been the need of a high degree of moderation, security and authentication regarding information and opinion givers. However, with over two thousand groups dedicated to healthcare professionals on Linkedin, it is evident that there is a growing need to network and interact through a professional platform. What has probably not been streamlined yet has been the degree of connectivity and viability of conversations that can lead to quantifiable collaborative results bolstering healthcare research, practices and technologies.

To cater to this very need of a global and interactive medium we propose an online, multi-sided and collaborative research oriented platform. This platform will bring together physicians, specialists, researchers, medical institutes, students and other health professionals internationally to promote research, continuing education and collaboration.

Collaboration will be the most integral undertaking of this platform. The platform will be tailored to promote focused peer-to-peer networking for professionals of specialized clinical departments like cardiology, oncology, neurology etc. The platform will facilitate multi-threaded discussions through which members can converse and collaborate freely in open groups, private workgroups and chats. The added value of these conversations will be the opportunity to research, debate and publish ideas with peers form a basis for communal and private knowledge sharing, research, mentorship and advocacy.

Promoting research is going to be another fundamental cornerstone of this platform. To facilitate the same there will be available a universal repository of collected media. The library will have up to the minute research, publications, medical journals, videos, online conferences etc. about new drugs, treatments, latest technologies and policies. Another facility will be access to a country wise database of medical registries of clinical trials.

Continuing physician education is another need that this platform will meet. It will make available latest courses, tutorials, seminars, affiliated labs and learning aids in varied fields of medicine. These resources certified by the country medical authority can be utilized by community members to earn continuing medical education credits online. This platform will also introduce cognitive aids like apps and games for self-education purposes. Gamification will help to render a fun-based, interactive and competitive aid for skill and knowledge enhancement.

To maintain credibility this platform will use networks of healthcare institutions for recruiting thereby ensuring authenticity of its members. This platform will be a fruitful endeavor in accumulating and streamlining collective expertise globally and making it available through a single, secure and easily accessible information channel.