Current trends in social media include the expansion of user-generated resources
from everyday, commonplace knowledge in the direction of ever increasingly
specialized and even professional expertise. This tendency is illustrated by the launch of
VideoMD, a new user generated content (UGC) website encouraging physicians to upload
videos geared towards their real-life patients.
Doctors are able to create their own personal profile, which is
referenced on the site so that patients can search for them by name. The conformity to professional standards of
the information provided is ensured by a review system whereby submitted videos
appear on the site only after they have been screened for medical content and
relevance.
VideoMD?s president Dean Heller, MD, cites the main goal of the new
offering as using web 2.0 tools to bridge the gap between patients and doctors,
saying that, "With all of the stress today on the physician-patient
relationship, doctors need to use technology to their advantage to improve this
relationship. We think VideoMD can be a
useful tool in strengthening the bond between patients and their doctors."
The site aims to grow into a comprehensive online library of medical
knowledge, where users can seek advice both from their own family physician and
from eminent specialists in the remoter fields of medicine. A community dimension is added by a video
blogging feature that allows patients to form support groups centred on
specific health themes.