Online Communities for Physicians

Physicians have started to take advantage of the internet and reach out to each other in order to form a more cohesive community in which they can brainstorm and affect actual policy in Washington DC and their state governments.

The 2008 election of President Obama increased physician membership in online communities because a lot of practicing doctors had issues with the President, and more specifically, Congress’s Health Care proposals.

One of the biggest factors was Tort Reform, and how they would word the bill in order to help physicians deal with the rising costs of medical malpractice insurance. With some doctors paying $200,000+ a year, the President, along with most Republicans, felt something had to be done.

This is why online communities took off. Sites such as SERMO have become a virtual meeting place for doctors. Taken from their homepage:

Sermo is the largest online physician-only community, where over 112,000 practicing physicians collaborate on cases and exchange observations about drugs, devices and clinical issues.

If physicians can come together, it’ll be tough for politicians to ignore the demands of 112,000 voices trying to change how medical liability insurance is determined, and what can be done about the litigious culture in our country.