How Physician-Focused Social Networks Boost Physician Referrals

// By Melanie Graham // 

Peter Alperin, MD, vice president of connectivity solutions at Doximity

Social media isn’t always an easy sell in the healthcare community. Not only do physicians have limited time to spend on social media, the platforms can be minefields of HIPAA and patient confidentiality violations.

But at a time when value-based care is growing, communication between hospitals and providers is more important than ever. Social media, while tricky to navigate, can play an important role in this communication.

“Social media can be a tremendously powerful medium for healthcare institutions to get their message to physicians,” says Peter Alperin, MD, vice president of connectivity solutions at Doximity, a mobile and web-based social network for healthcare professionals.

Alperin, who is also staff physician for the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, was a part of the 2017 Healthcare Internet Conference in Austin, where he shared how Doximity can benefit hospital marketing efforts. Erika Smith, director of marketing at Stanford Children’s Health, joined him for the presentation “The Doctor Will (Read) It Now.”

Doximity and Stanford have been working together for more than three years, focusing mainly on physician referral marketing communications through the platform’s Colleague Connect, a feature that helps hospitals expand their referral networks. The platform allows them to target specific audiences and market the right content to the right people. The partnership with Doximity has brought measurable results for Stanford Children’s Health, and has given the organization more control over messaging shared by its physicians. “It’s a way we can use social networks properly,” Smith says.

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