DOXIMITY: A Professional Network for Physicians

Anne Cummings, MD

Many apps are intended to “help doctors” with their work. Doximity, for example, was designed by the founders of ePocrates to help doctors communicate with colleagues and classmates across the entire United States in a doctors-only, HIPAA-compliant professional network. The company boasts that Linked-In cofounder Konstantin Guericke is on its board.

Doximity was launched in 2011 and is available for handheld devices and desktops, although it’s primarily for mobile use. The app allows you to:

Connect with colleagues and classmates using a search by name, medical school, residency, geographic location or specialty. You can also find contact information for any U.S. physician instantly. (The app uses NPI numbers for individual physicians as its database.)

Send HIPAA-compliant text messages and faxes from anywhere. Clinical data, lab and ECG can all be included using photos taken with your phone. Phone lists of searchable hospitals nationwide are also available. Special connections can be made to share “personal profile information” with specific colleagues, such as cell phone numbers.

Participate in iRounds. Here you can view recent and popular conversations within iRounds, where topics such as curbsides, technology and health policy are discussed in a secure but transparent environment. You can become an active participant with a tap of the finger.

Earn honoraria by getting connected to clients who paid over $100 million to physicians last year for research, second opinions and medicolegal consulting.

The app continues to evolve. A “DocNews Highlights” bar, currently in beta testing, aggregates hundreds of journal RSS feeds. On the down side, pharmacy numbers used to be available, but they have been removed for unclear reasons.

For more information, visit www.doximity.com.

Dr. Cummings, a Greenbrae internist, is secretary/treasurer of MMS.

Email: annemcummingsmd@mindspring.com