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The Doximity Social Network – Medical Professionals Only, Please

The medical networking site Doximity probably hates this comparison – but it’s like LinkedIn for medical professionals. It definitely provides additional functionality that’s uniquely valuable for people in the medical professions (more on that in a bit), but the site is all about connecting providers with each other. It’s not a site where prospective patients will find you.

Even so, don’t overlook Doximity as part of your marketing strategy. A big part of its social networking is geared towards making it easier to consult with doctors and other health providers. And improving your brand with other doctors to increase referrals. It also recently announced its providing marketing services for hospitals to grow their referral networks among Doximity’s membership.

Who’s on Doximity

According to the site’s own statistics, its membership is over a half millions strong including over 60% of the physicians in the United States on the site as verified members of Doximity. The professional networking site isn’t yet open to medical professionals outside the United States.

To be clear though – the site is open to other medical professionals, specifically nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinically licensed healthcare professionals. But only medical professionals. People on the business or tech side of managing a medical practice, knowledgeable as they may be, aren’t welcome here. Doximity is committed to keeping the networking and discussions strictly done by and focused on medical professionals. (Well, med students can join too.)

If you decide to claim your profile, you’ll have to go through a 3-step verification process. Doximity builds its unclaimed profiles from the usual publicly and commercially available sources, including the NPI database. There’s no costs to claiming your profile and using its functionality. They want you there.

Below, we’ll go into what a Doximity profile looks like, and then its social networking functions geared towards the needs of doctors.

Your Doximity Profile – Detailed and Extensive

The purpose of your profile here is to inform other medical professionals about your background, expertise, and experience. As a result, you can add considerably more details and links to share the full picture of your CV. In fact, you can upload your CV to the site to seed your profile quickly and then revise it from there.

Having your CV also helps Doximity verify your background information and credentials. The verification process isn’t just for you to prove you are who you say are. It’s their backstop to ensure the membership stays 100% medical professionals.

After you get verified, you’ll have full profile that contains these sections, which you can continue to fill out:

  • Clinical specialties and interests
  • Faculty appointments and work history
  • Education and training
  • Certification and licensure
  • Awards, honors and recognition
  • Clinical Trials
  • Publications and Presentations
  • Grant support
  • Research history
  • Committees
  • Professional Memberships
  • Other languages
  • Hospital affiliations
  • ACO/IPA affiliations
  • Insurance accepted

As you can see, much of this information wouldn’t be interest the average patient, but it vital when a doctor is looking for a consult on a difficult case. As always, the more complete and accurate you keep your profile here, the more likely you’ll be found the people you want to find you.

You’ll also be able to upload a headshot (also recommended), contact and practice logistics, and your other social media links.

Patients can’t search on the Doximity site for a provider, although the link may come up in an Internet search on your name. As a non-member of the site, they’ll see a modified, compact version of your profile.
Doximity image 1

They’ll also see links to other Doximity members who share your specialty and geographic location at the bottom. This is all a part of Doximity’s firewall against its membership getting spammed. You can also set privacy parameters on your profile within the social network that restrict which members can see your full profile.

So You Completed Your Profile, Now What?

The site has three main functional categories:

  1. Social networking with other medical professionals
  2. Professional and career development
  3. Secure clinical communications

Like other social networks, the social networking aspect of Doximity centers on a newsfeed and discussions. Members can upload peer-reviewed and popular press articles that are medical related. Doximity also has curated newsletters, which includes links to recent news.

Garrett Smith

Garrett is the Founder, and Chief Marketer at InboundMD. Garrett has been successfully leading internet marketing campaigns for health care practices across the US for almost a decade. He's a frequent speaker at events, and author of "Book Now! Internet Marketing for Healthcare Practices", and the host of The Practice Marketing Podcast that details how successful practices are winning online.

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