Doximity's iRounds gives physicians real-time access to expert advice

Doximity’s latest offering gives new meaning to the phrase “clinical decision support.”

The San Mateo, Calif.-based online professional physician network has rolled out iRounds, billed as the first HIPAA-compliant forum for doctors. Available online or via the iPhone or Android, the secure network allows physicians to seek real-time advice from more than 30,000 colleagues on difficult cases, new technologies or best practices.

Launched less than a year ago by former Epocrates executives, Doximity has been steadily growing its physician-facing platform, and now boasts connections to more than 5 percent of the nation’s physicians.

“iRounds enables doctors to consult with the largest online community of their peers on matters of real clinical and practical significance – specific patient cases, referrals, collaboration on research,” said Jeff Tangney, Doximity’s founder and CEO, in a press release. “Most physicians don’t have access to this kind of interaction after their residencies. iRounds fills the gap as physicians move on to private and hospital practice and no longer have the opportunity to participate in journal clubs and other collective clinical discussion.”

According to company officials, physicians with approved access to the Doximity network can also use iRounds to make sure their advice they’re getting is reliable. By clicking on the sender’s profile, they can access his or her background, practice location, credentials, clinical expertise and research interests.

“With iRounds, I was able to connect directly to and receive rapid feedback from a wide range of specialists and quickly get my patient referred to an appropriate doctor for treatment,” said Rafael Lugo, MD, in the press release.

“Medicine is very much a team sport and iRounds is changing the way we practice by putting this collective knowledge right at our fingertips,” said Lugo, who used iRounds to post photos of a rare tumor as it progressed. “Patients benefit significantly more from the skill and experience of 30,000 doctors, as opposed to just one.”

Doximity officials said iRounds has been tested thousands of times, with some conversations focusing on the use of iPhone’s Siri voice assistant for clinical dictation, debates over the treatment of so-called “mini-strokes” and the best EMR platforms for small practices looking to meet meaningful use requirements, and discussions about federal attempts to regulate text messaging by physicians.

In other instances, company officials said, iRounds was used to help identify the cause of a perforated bowel, solve a recurrent case of hives and identify a therapy plan for a child with Clostridium difficile.
 

Eric Wicklund

Editor of mHIMSS.org

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