That makes great sense, Alison, to have a private portal that uses the natural technology tools that people use in communications.  Healthcare IS an information sharing business and a lot of time is wasted in that effort; not to mention errors with inaccurate communications.

Having professional social networks, if built right, could be a great fundamental tool for increased effectiveness. 

It would be even better if the AMA would become the sponsored host - where there is a trusted channel and fully compliant with the data/privacy issues.

DHagar

These apps and networks surely can't substitute for patient-doctor contact.  I'd be surprised if that's what's intended.

Same was the problem with that health care apps ...Though it was a brilliant initiative ever taken in the field of IT but usually fall short of expectations of the users when it comes to accuracy issues...the reason is the same i.e absence of one to one meeting feature in all these advancements.

I think it's a good idea and you could see the need for similar platforms for other industries, say financial, where multiple people are involved in taking care of the customer, but privacy is a major concern. It goes a step beyond existing enterprise social networks because of the HIPAA and European privacy standards and its tight ties to the healthcare community. 

Great attention to detail.  Just shows it's possible to be compliant with quite stringent privacy laws, and still get the job done.

All users of this network are clinicians, so they're all doctors, nurses, or specialists, eliminating the use by regular citizens who would chime in with uninformed information. These clinicians are only discussing patient cases when they're involved in a particular person's care, I believe, so it's not a free-for-all but does make it easier for doctors and specialists to collaborate, something they do now without a dedicated social media platform. DocCom argues that a dedicated social media network gives clinicians the privacy and security to discuss cases in small, related groups, and that's something they can't easily do now via phone, fax, or pager. 

Social networks are making inroads to everybody's personal lives. It's a pleasant concept to utilize this forum by the healthcare professionals to serve the humanity. However, I still believe that the major chunk of doctors' time should be spent in clinics and hospitals to physically examining the patients rather than online. Sometimes advice rendered on social media are not taken in right perspective by recipients. People with varied understanding interpret the messages according to their own understanding and IQ about a certain subject and may act upon it erroneously. Moreover, much of the issues could not be discussed due to associated privacy issues with patients. Nevertheless, social media can and would play a significant role in this very domain for the better understanding and education of people about healthcare issues through social media. 

For space reasons, I didn't go into all the security but on the identity front, DocCom federates user info against data the organization holds and uses workflow that's enabled by the organization or network for domain validation. The social network uses encryption and received certification for ISO 27001, N3 IGTK, HIPAA, and the European Data Protection Act. It's designed for smartphones, either hospital- or physician-owned to address BYOD. One of the challenges is, obviously, security from a technology perspective and from a resistance POV, and security is one reason many other collaborative tools and enterprise social networks are off-limits for healthcare professionals.

I am surprised the structure described here squeaked by European privacy legislation, but if it did, it certainly has a good chance of working in the US.