Physician social network Sermo has put a Spanish-language version of its popular site online and expanded membership to its first two non-English-speaking countries, Mexico and Spain. The New York-based company hopes the move will boost medical crowdsourcing worldwide.
“With differing medical practices around the globe and lots of remote areas where there are a low number of specialists, the ability to exchange medical wisdom with speed and security in a doctors-only social network is highly valuable and potentially life-saving for patients,” CEO Peter Kirk said in a company statement.
This also is the latest example of Sermo’s plans to expand globally, starting in countries where it already has offices. Sermo previously had been open to physicians in the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa. It also has facilities in Germany, Japan, China and Lithuania, so those countries and their native languages could be the next to see Sermo service.
Both the Sermo website and mobile apps now have translation capability so Spanish-speaking users can participate in anglophone conversations, and vice-versa.
“Oftentimes there is a shortage of certain specialties in a particular village or geographic region,” said Mexican physician Priscila Gómez said in the Sermo release. “Through Sermo, doctors can reach other physicians of all specialties. It’s simple and can be done quickly, which is essential when dealing with patients who may live far away from clinic and are unable to come back for a follow-up.”
Sermo said that it currently has close to 470,000 members — all physicians — in the seven English-speaking countries it is in. Mexico has about 260,000 registered physicians, while Spain counts about 232,000.
Sermo cited a Health Interactive Services survey showing that 76 percent of Mexican doctors look for medical information on the Internet. While such numbers for Spanish physicians were not available, the general population of Spain has a slightly higher Internet usage rate than does Mexico, according to Sermo.
