I can’t sit through a social health meeting without hearing about Sermo and its 100,000 physicians.  Unity Stoakes from Organized Wisdom recently mentioned the 100,000 doctor number on Mashable.  It’s the requisite statistic.  Sermo, by the numbers, is everyone’s favorite example of how all the physicians have hopped on the social media love bus.

But when you think about docs and their networks it’s important to understand the difference between registered users and regular users.  Just ‘cause you sign up doesn’t mean you’re on board.  And defining ‘on board’ can be tricky.  Engagement is, after all, in the eye of the beholder.

While we may understand this, we still love to hang on 100K.  Perhaps because we all want 100,000 doctors every day sharing, collaborating and talking.   We want doctors just as excited and engaged as the rest of us.  Pharma and medical manufacturers want a place to sell their stuff.  We’re all desperate for a really successful physician platform.  We are in love with the concept of Sermo.

How many of Sermo’s 100,000 registered users access the platform everyday or every week is almost irrelevant because of what we want to believe.

We’ve got 100,000 doctors in one place and it serves our presentations well.  Let’s not mess with it.