Social Media and Physicians; Is the G-Med platform bridging the gap?

Bridging the gap between physicians in the workplace with the social media outlets of today

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 30, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — It may be hard to conceive practicing medicine as a lonely profession. After all, physicians are surrounded patients and office staff for at least 8 hours each day. But despite being in the constant company of others, over 25% of physicians report feeling isolated at least once a week, according to a Forbes survey of 1,400 practicing physicians.

Even though physicians have coworkers going through the exact same struggle that they are, many find it difficult to find someone with a specialization similar to theirs that they can consult with about an impactful decision they must make.

Some physicians do not feel comfortable talking to a person within their immediate environment about the difficult feelings that result from exposure to death, fatigue, stress and the burden of the medical decisions of the day.

Yet, similar to other healthcare professions, the support of colleagues is vital.

For all these reasons, when the G-Med network, decided to set up such a platform, it had to do so with great sensitivity and thought.

“Doctors learn and progress sharing cases with colleagues” says Dana Feldman, G-Med’s Digital Content and Content Manager. “Yet studies show that physician do not like to use open, non-gated social networks, meaning they do not set up professional groups like in other professions. There are small local physician networks in the UK and US, and we see that they are willing to share information only with someone who is also a physician. This is why, when we created G-Med, we initiated three-step physician verification process before a physician is allowed on our platform. When a trustworthy physician-only environment is created, the physicians will trust the platform enough to start sharing information with each other.”

Using their full name and specialty, physicians on G-Med present the difficult and complex cases they encounter and seek advice, refer a case study to a unique expert and seek retrospective support and post-decision analysis for the decisions they have made.

A recent survey on our platform was conducted among physicians to discover what motivates them in the field of medicine. The study revealed that a sense of control over the situation, ego satisfaction and cognitive challenges are the three main motivators (the motivation for helping patients was a distant fourth place). A social media network exclusively for physicians to consultation on complex cases meets all of these needs,” says Feldman.

Additionally, the G-Med network is a kind of extension of what is happening at medical conferences, that is, it has an international networking, presentation of complex cases and open “round-table” type conversations. The G-Med platform also makes it possible to find research partners.

But building a social media platform hasn’t been without its struggles. For example; how does the platform deal with the drama that naturally tends to form in online discussion groups? Does G-Med allow the group admin to silence a speaker? Should the G-Med content moderation team have the ability to remove people from a group or platform, a platform which is there to service all physicians in an open and unbiased fashion?

These are no simple answers to this.

Nonetheless, the G-Med network is currently used over 1.5 million physicians across over 160 countries, many in some of the most medically inaccessible countries, where they would have no other way to access fellow physicians in their chosen specialty.

“G-Med is today the only network for verified physician is completely global. What sets us apart from other networks, is that we started as a global network, while other networks started as local ventures and try to expand. It is more difficult to make adjustments to the global market in retrospect,” says Feldman.

The biggest beneficiaries of the G-Med network, aside from the physicians are their patients. Feldman gives some examples of this. “A case of a leishmaniasis patient was presented from a geographical location where leishmaniasis is not common,” she says. A physician who has more experience with the disease says; “This is a side effect of a drug for leishmaniasis”. In other thread, a case of severe cancer is presented and a physician jumps in; “I have an ongoing experimental treatment trial that your patient should join,” while another chimes in and says, “Come treat him at my clinic.”

Additionally, physicians need a place where they can share information in a place which is most comfortable for them, and we see this as especially relevant in the Covid era of today. Physicians all over the world and across all specialties are coming together on our COVID-19 physician only hub to talk real world medicine, with over 110,000 physician-initiated COVID posts, all searchable category and keyword.

Additionally, the platform is a dream come true for pharma companies, as they now have one central location to reach so many diverse physicians. Pharma companies are able to target their physician advertising and physician education in an ultra-targeted fashion, such as per physician specialty, location, keyword and many more in their effort to target their advertising and education and maximize ROI.

For more info on direct-to-physicians advertising on the G-Med physicians-only platform, please contact Steven below.

Steven Gleiberman
G-Med
[email protected]
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