After "years of pressure" from its physician members, Sermo, an online physician community has finally announced plans to create a mobile app. Sermo inked a deal with Janssen Global Services to develop mobile and web services that will specifically enable physicians to more easily refer patients for care. Sermo says it has 120,000 physicians as members, which makes for one in five of all US physicians.
Sermo said one of the drivers for moving to mobile is that more than 50 percent of its members are now smartphone users. While the company did not offer a specific percentage, it sounds like the figure is well below the oft quoted physician smartphone adoption figure from Manhattan Research, which believes that smartphone adoption is currently north of 72 percent of US physicians.
The companies' press release stated that both physicians and patients complain that care today is compromised by lack of connectivity and follow-up:
"Our research shows there is tremendous frustration among doctors and patients about the lack of solutions to coordinate care, and new technologies appear to be compounding, rather than solving, the problem," Daniel Palestrant MD, CEO and Chairman of Sermo stated in a press release. "EMR and EHR have become so contentious among physicians, because they create barriers and introduce complexity into the patient relationship, rather than remove them." Dr. Palestrant continues, "For years we have been under tremendous pressure from our community to offer a mobile application, but we have resisted because we wanted to have a truly transformative impact on the point of care. Our community has validated that our approach achieves that goal."
Based on a conversation MobiHealthNews had with Sermo two years ago, it might be a safe bet that Sermo's mobile offerings will land on the iPhone first:
“We don’t have any near-term strategies on mobile,” Sharp told MobiHealthNews in April 2009. “But I think that there are some really good mobile technologies already out there for physicians, like applications for information for providing patient care. That’s not something we’re looking to pursue, because I don’t see any reason to reinvent a very, very good wheel,” Sharp said. “I am sure at some point we will actually get on the iPhone,” Sharp relented. “I’m a little biased — I’m an iPhone junkie. At the office, we are an all-Mac company, so I do anticipate that, at some point, one of our developers will get the itch to write an iPhone app. So we’ll probably have more on that down the road.”
And here we are.
It's also worth noting that pressure from the recent launch of Doximity, which was founded by former Epocrates' founders and pulled in $10.8 million in initial funding, may have had something to do with the sudden "itch" to launch a mobile offering.
More in Sermo's press release after the jump.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 22, 2011 -- Sermo, Inc., the world's largest on-line physician community, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Janssen Global Services, LLC to develop and deliver new mobile and web services that allow physicians to move their patients more easily and efficiently through the healthcare system. Both companies recognize a key ingredient missing in healthcare transformation is a physician's ability to refer a patient for care, while ensuring continuity in that care. Both physicians and patients complain care today is compromised by lack of connectivity and follow-up.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110321/MM68825LOGO )
Since launching over five years ago, Sermo has grown into the largest on-line physician community counting one in five US physicians as members. The Sermo community increasingly recognized the challenge of coordinating care among providers and that removing barriers had the potential to greatly improve healthcare while controlling costs. At the same time, smartphone penetration among Sermo's users had eclipsed 50%. So, in early 2010, Sermo began work on a solution that would better link physicians and patients.
Sermo, working in close collaboration with physicians across the country, has identified key opportunities that would help empower teams of physicians to coordinate the best possible care for their patients while "closing the loop" for all care team members. The intersection of physicians, consumers, and mobile devices represents a critical point of leverage in the effort to improve the healthcare system.
"Our research shows there is tremendous frustration among doctors and patients about the lack of solutions to coordinate care, and new technologies appear to be compounding, rather than solving, the problem," said Daniel Palestrant MD, CEO and Chairman of Sermo. "EMR and EHR have become so contentious among physicians, because they create barriers and introduce complexity into the patient relationship, rather than remove them." Dr. Palestrant continues, "For years we have been under tremendous pressure from our community to offer a mobile application, but we have resisted because we wanted to have a truly transformative impact on the point of care. Our community has validated that our approach achieves that goal."
In a recent survey of 600 physicians conducted by Sermo clear gaps were identified in how care is currently coordinated in the healthcare system, with a majority of respondents recognizing a significant portion of their referrals never result in a scheduled appointment. Another survey conducted jointly by Sermo and athenahealthcare, a provider of web-based practice management solutions, showed physicians are becoming less likely to agree that EMRs and EHRs improve efficiency (from 47% in 2010 to 42% in 2011). The results, part of the companies' annual Physician Sentiment Index (PSI), also revealed growing skepticism among physicians that EMRs and EHRs reduce medical errors (from 71% in 2010 to 64% in 2011) and decrease costs (from 41% in 2010 to 37% in 2011). Furthermore, physicians consistently say the goal of new products should be to return to a more patient-centric approach to healthcare, one which prioritizes patient needs above those of policy makers and administrators.
The first set of services from the partnership is expected to roll out to physicians this spring, with consumer-oriented services scheduled for later in the year.
About Sermo
Sermo is the largest online physician community, where over 120,000 physicians collaborate to improve patient care. Sermo provides access to its community for clients that need fast, actionable insights.
SOURCE Sermo
