The ‘Instagram for Doctors’ is bringing a whole new meaning to digital health
Digital health is booming on social media, whether it be talking to doctors online or finding out how Twitter can help explain sleep disorders, but what about Instagram?
People who have rare diseases or try to raise awareness
share their thoughts through the photo sharing mobile app, but it looks
like doctors are stepping up their game in the photo-sharing industry
with an app called Figure 1, recognized as the “Instagram for doctors.”
Physicians worldwide can upload anonymous photos to Figure 1
that show important and confounding medical cases in an effort to reach
the rest of the medical community for advice and information.
The app has tens of thousands of users and just six months after it’s launch in 2013, Figure 1 received $2 million in venture and angel funds to expand the app to more platforms.
Since MedCity last reported on Figure 1, the company has followed up
on its promise and has expanded the app to both iPhone and Android
users. They have also expanded use to 40 countries, verifying thousands
of doctors each week.
Anyone has the ability to download the app, but only medical
professionals have the ability to comment and post photos, making sure
that false scares and confidential photos don’t appear. This posting and
commenting can help patients identify their own medical conditions or
learn more about other health issues.
An in-app permission form must be filled out by patients before
gaining access to the app’s content, and identifying qualities such as
tattoos and faces are blurred out in order to keep posting as anonymous
as possible.
App users are able to bookmark specific photos to look at later and
can either use their name or a screen-name in order to try to diagnose
something as objectively as possible.
Figure 1 is also extremely beneficial for medical professionals. If
one doctor is confused about a patient and is permitted to share photos
of what is going on, that doctor can then receive information from other
professionals that can help him figure out what exactly is going on
with his patients.
Dr. Joshua Landy, the creator of the app and a doctor at an intensive care unit in Toronto, previously explained
to MedCity News that since its cellphone camera technology has the
ability to capture high-resolution images, it’s easy for people to
identify illnesses or conditions based off of an easily identifiable
photo.
Landy, told the Huffington Post, “My patients are sick and
have complex needs. Often we’ll use images and pictures to communicate
what’s going on with those patients. I absolutely recognize the behavior
in my own life.”
In addition to the Instagram-like photo sharing capabilities of
Figure 1, the app also includes Paging — a feature that uses push
notifications to help locate a medical specialist within the Figure 1
network who can provide input on a specific posted case. Landy claimed
that the average time it takes to solve cases using Paging is 30
minutes.
Landy explained to the Huffington Post, “The big goal is to help
democratize medical knowledge. I want that knowledge to be everywhere in
the world where there is Internet signal, because the knowledge of
specialists shouldn’t be beyond the reach of the world’s medical
community.”
Check out some images below:
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