Today, we announced that 70% of U.S. physicians have joined the Doximity network. What have we learned from our community of 800,000 physician members? We've learned that connections count. And physicians can count on their connections. Using Doximity, here are some of the amazing ways doctors have worked together to serve their patients, more efficiently and more effectively than ever before.
J. Michael Hitt, MD: One of my patients was bitten by a Macaque monkey, which is infected with a virus that can produce a lethal encephalitis in humans. Worldwide, there are only a dozen or so experts on this zoonosis, but Doximity allowed me to quickly contact authors of key publications that present information critical to treating this disease. The patient did fine - so did the monkey. Doximity provided me with easy access to experts!
Payal Kohli, MD, FACC: It was around 2:15 am and the UCSF Emergency room called me and asked me if I could look at at EKG right away. As the overnight on-call cardiology fellow, one of our responsibilities is to determine whether the cardiac catheterization laboratory needs to be activated for a particular type of myocardial infection, called a STEMI, in which "every minute counts". The ED physician asked me how he could get the EKG to me. Since the ED fax machine is notorious for taking over 10 minutes to transmit a fax, we were able to use Doximity (as we were both members) to securely transmit a fax within minutes. No violations, no delay! Indeed, that patient did need to go to the cath lab urgently. And, the next week, I was able to share the EKG with my colleagues as it was saved on my phone in my Doximity app.
I remember thinking how happy I was to be a part of Doximity and how those few minutes may have made a difference in that patient's outcome, which was excellent.
Clasina Leslie Smith, MD MS, MA, DABMA: About 2 weeks ago in clinic, I had a patient who urgently needed a retinal specialist. Google searches for physicians tend to yield Yelp-equivalent sites rating doctors and giving very little information without a subscription: it's an inefficient way to search for colleagues. I simply hopped on Doximity in the room with her to see if I could find someone I knew personally. It streamlined the process of finding someone that I trusted because I knew him from medical school and who was located close to the patient's home. I was able to quickly call him through his listed phone number and explain the situation so that she could be seen the next day. The patient, my colleague, and me all benefited from being able to get her taken care of quickly, personally, and professionally.
Anitha Rao, MD MA: We admitted a patient to the Neuro ICU who was seizing continuously for 1 hour. We were clueless on a Saturday, on how to contact the primary neurologist regarding prior seizure meds. Through Doximity we were able to communicate with her physician, and ultimately impact patient care and treatment.
David W Hall II, MD: As a specialist, I work out of 5 different hospitals. Oftentimes, surgeries are delayed or cancelled because surgical clearance documents (i.e., labs, EKGs, Echocardiograms, Chest X-Rays, cardiology office notes) haven’t made it to the surgical pre-operative area in a timely and/or guaranteed manner. By encouraging my patients’ primary care doctors and my anesthesia colleagues to use Doximity, we’ve been able to communicate more effectively and avert unnecessary surgery cancellations, saving time and money for everyone involved, including patients.