Doctors.net.uk, the UK’s largest and most active online professional network of doctors, which was launched in 1998 pioneered the use of social media tools in a professional, peer-to-peer environment.

The company, run from Milton Park, near Didcot, set an online networking trend for the medical profession that has changed the way doctors work by enabling them to collaborate online to solve clinical problems.

Set up for doctors by doctors, Doctors.net.uk, now has more than 186,000 and provides extensive clinical content including online education, conference highlights and discussion forums.

The services capitalise on the latest technology to bring news and information to doctors on the go by offering iPhone apps and later this year a medical education app will be launched to provide doctors with medical education quizzes on mobile devices.

More than 300 doctors act as advisers and clinical information contributors and the credibility and integrity of all published materials is assured, thanks to an experienced editorial team and a code of absolute transparency for all information published.

The online discussion forum, which sees GPs and hospital doctors supporting each other and collaborating each week to solve clinical problems, is credited with improving patient care and transforming doctors’ working practices.

Questions get answered in minutes, with opinions provided from the 82 specialties within medicine. Last year more than half a million posts were made by UK doctors.

Helping their peers in this way also enables doctors to further their careers by gaining kudos and respect within the medical community.

This can be particularly useful for junior doctors looking to build their portfolio.

Years ago they had to publish many research papers and case studies and make a great effort to make their faces known. Now they can build their profile online from their computer, iPad or smartphone.

Doctors love the immediacy of online channels, which enable them to keep abreast of rapid changes in knowledge across medical practice and to tap into the expertise of colleagues in other hospitals/specialisms at the touch of a button.

They also like to ‘self-service’ information needs at their own convenience and to complete online market research from their home or workplace.

But as illustrated by recent advice from the British Medical Association, which warned doctors against befriending patients on social networking sites such as Facebook for fear of blurring professional boundaries, doctors also have to be careful about how they engage online.

Doctors.net.uk is an authenticated and closed professional network. This means doctors who are looking for advice know that they are speaking to other doctors in a secure environment which cannot be accessed by the general public.

We offer Doctors.net.uk free of charge to doctors and fund this by charging clients for the delivery of targeted engagement campaigns.

Our clients include the Government, 90 per cent of the world’s leading pharma companies, third sector organisations and medical devices firms. We also work for lawyers, accountants and consumer/B2B companies.

These campaigns — which are often informed by extensive qualitative and quantitative research from Doctors.net.uk’s independent market research division, medeConnect Healthcare Insight — enable our clients to present news, views and information in a way that can really benefit doctors’ clinical practice.

A number of our clients have asked us if we could replicate our UK activities in other countries to enable them to engage more effectively with doctors internationally.

In response, we have recently launched Networks in Health — an international alliance of online physician communities.

Networks in Health helps organisations to standardise their approach to engaging and researching physicians internationally and ensures their messages are in line with local languages, culture and regulations.

Following this launch, Doctors.net.uk, which was owned by a small group of private investors, has recently been acquired by M3 USA — a fast growing international online healthcare company.

M3 offers access to a range of resources, which will enable us to enhance our services and solutions and introduce new ones.

We believe this move will best serve our members’ and our clients’ interests, and bring enormous advances and benefits.

Innovation has been the secret of our success over the past 13 years and we look forward to continuing to lead the way in online professional networks for doctors.

This page is co-ordinated by Oxford Innovation www.oxin.co.uk