If you have the chance check out Doximity, the latest player on the physician social stage.  Doximity appeared two weeks ago with a soft, ever-so-quiet launch that garnered over a 1,000 physicians during its first live week.  Doximity offers clinicians a secure communications network with a complete directory of pharmacies, hospitals, and MDs.

At Doximity’s core is a rich, LinkedIn-like profile that allows doctors to create a professional picture of who they are and where they’ve been.  Once the profile is built out you can search out colleagues and medical school classmates.  Registration’s a snap and the UI is clean.  Perhaps the most memorable point of registering with Doximity was the feeling I had after seeing all my medical school classmates listed in front of me.  I’ll better be able to comment on this relational functionality once my classmates find their way onto the network.

Doximity launched with a well-designed iPhone app.  Perhaps its coolest feature is a HIPAA-compliant, encrypted SMS messaging system that allows quick interaction between providers.

With any physician network the question is what is it that’s going to bring the doctor back?  What value does the site hold that will make them feel compelled to sign in again and again?  While Doximity may see its strength as point-of-care doctor-to-doctor communication I think that their profile alone could hold real promise.  It’s amazing to think that up until this point I have had no way to formally present my medical self and no easy way to reliably view up-to-date biographicals on my colleagues and medical school classmates.

While they’re off to a solid start, Doximity’s success will depend on the value-added features that it ultimately chooses to adopt.  And while the encrypted SMS feature on their iPhone app is cool, we’ll have to see if this is enough to give the product real traction among a population of fickle late adopters.

Doximity is the brainchild of Jeff Tangney, the founder of ePocrates.  While it may be presumptuous to suggest he has the Midas touch, it’s safe to say he knows what he’s doing.

If you’re a physician, go to Doximity and claim your space.  You can connect with me for starts.

Check out this exclusive interview with Doximity CEO Jeff Tangney on iMedicalApps.