iRounds is Taking Medicine Social

iRounds is a new social network launched in February by Doximity, allowing doctors to recieve immediate feedback from specialists nationwide.

Touted as Twitter for doctors, the program is already the largest online professional physician network, according to Mashable. The program allows doctors to connect to discuss cases, ask for second (and third) opinions and engage in real-time dialogue with other medical professionals. It also allows users to check the profiles of those they are in communication with, allowing them to confirm credibility. Obviously, patients' medical information is kept confidential.

"As with anything in medicine, you consult multiple resources and don’t trust a single source fully, so iRounds allows you to interact with multiple physicians in multiple specialties and potentially receive a wide range of opinions," New York-based nephrologist and internal medicine doctor Joshua Schwimmer told Mashable. "The debates are always instructive.”

iRounds has already become the go-to social network for doctors, and should only grow from here. With the potential to limit expensive trips to specialists, cut down on the time it takes to get a second opinion and increase access to specialists from across the country, iRounds could prove as benficial to patients as the doctors who use the program.

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