Cloud and Social Networking in Healthcare: What are the leaders doing?

9 July 2012, London, United Kingdom.
DocCom, provider of the first cloud-based enterprise social networking platform exclusively for healthcare, today announces that it is partnering with Microsoft to co-host an exclusive event for healthcare professionals that will explore the practical issues, potential pitfalls and transformative opportunities of cloud and social networking for healthcare. The half-day forum, entitled "The Cloud and Social Networking in Healthcare: What are the leaders doing?" is being held on Monday 9th July at Microsoft's London offices in Cardinal Place. Attendance is encouraged from Medical Directors, CEOs and CIOs from NHS Trusts, and frontline clinicians and healthcare managers are also welcome to attend. Spaces are strictly limited and can be reserved by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to register.

DocCom and Microsoft are hosting this key event to provide healthcare decision-makers with expert analysis of the practical application and benefits of cloud and social technologies in a clinical context, offering clear guidance on how healthcare organisations can harness the future of secure healthcare communication. DocCom will be presenting an overview of its cloud-based enterprise social networking solution for healthcare, which is built on the latest Microsoft Development Stack for enterprise grade security and compliance. The half-day session will feature key user case studies from DocCom's customers, including Peter Aitken, Lead for Improvement at NIHR CLAHRC Southwest Peninsula, who will talk about the importance of Insight when trying to change human behaviour in healthcare; Kevin Cleary, Medical Director East London NHS Foundation Trust and Former Medical Director NPSA, who will be demonstrating how networks can improve safety by disseminating safety information; and Dr Clare Wedderburn, Associate Dean at Dorset GP, who will be exploring how the new relationships between acute and primary care will impact coordination and communication. With a strong focus on security and information governance issues, Nick Umney, Technical Specialist for Cloud at Microsoft, will give his insight on the opportunity cloud presents for healthcare, while Dr Jonathan Bloor, co-founder and medical director of DocCom and Dr Jonathon Shaw, co-founder and managing director of DocCom, will share their vision of how secure social networking can be used to make healthcare a safer and more efficient place.

Founded by doctors, DocCom is taking the very best social networking technology and applying it to the unique requirements of healthcare professionals - empowering healthcare teams to securely find, collaborate, communicate and share with each other effectively, and giving healthcare organisations the tools and insight to solve specific business problems in safety and efficiency. A 2011 NHS staff survey revealed that only 26 per cent of respondents felt that communication between senior managers and staff is effective, and less than a third (30 per cent) reported that senior managers act on feedback from staff. This backs up research carried out by DocCom which found that 90 per cent of Medical Directors have a problem communicating with their doctors. This frustration, caused by the lack of fit-for-purpose online communication platforms, has led to some staff taking the initiative to engineer their own "workaround" solutions, including use of third-party, non-healthcare-specific software and, in some cases, inappropriate use of social networking platforms such as Facebook - with potentially calamitous implications for data protection and patient confidentiality.

"Social networking and cloud technologies are now a fact of modern life, and innovators in the healthcare industry are now realising that these platforms can deliver immense benefits to healthcare teams, if harnessed in a secure, reliable and responsible way," comments DocCom co-founder and medical director Dr Jonathan Bloor. He continues: "Effective communication saves lives, time and money. The impact of the human and financial costs associated with the poor organisational and cross-industry communication in healthcare is being clearly felt across all levels of healthcare delivery, from frontline staff to senior management. This event is aimed at helping medical directors and healthcare IT professionals to understand how an enterprise social networking system that is fully standards-compliant - and supported and endorsed by key healthcare management - can significantly improve clinical safety and efficiency within their own organisations."

About DocCom
DocCom provides the first enterprise networking solution specifically designed to help healthcare professionals to connect, communicate and collaborate. DocCom is combining the best attributes of social and enterprise networking to create secure, cloud-based, healthcare-focused tools that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and via any device - supporting busy people delivering critical care. DocCom's secure software solutions are designed by doctors who understand the unique privacy and operational challenges involved - making life easier for healthcare teams and clinical practice safer and more effective.

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