Have you had a chance to check out DocMatter? The College introduced this exciting new member benefit a few months ago. It’s a web-based community and forum for high-quality, clinical and practice management discussions. It’s also a unique platform for members to collaborate and network.
College physician members can enjoy a private, monitored forum that offers us a great deal of protection that is not available on ordinary social media sites. I was recently reading a physician discussion on another social media platform where it appeared the doctor was admitting to engaging in ill-advised billing practices and encouraging others to as well. Physicians may be putting themselves at risk when they post or comment on discussions that are not compliant with medicolegal requirements.
Members can feel safe to post issues on DocMatter. The College worked with DocMatter to draft a Code of Conduct that can be found on the College’s DocMatter homepage. The staff of DocMatter reviews all content before it is published to ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct. If a post violates HIPAA or other laws, or is otherwise not in compliance with the Code, it is not published.
More than 2,200 members are currently engaged with DocMatter and the number is growing every day. Since its initiation, there have been more than 500 posts on more than 63 different discussion topics. Post topics include:
- USP compliance
- Coding issues
- A teenage athlete not responding to albuterol
- Skin testing for progesterone sensitivity
- Severe eosinophilic asthma in a 15-year-old
- C2 deficiency
- Avoidance of vitamin B2 in patients with contact dermatitis to cobalt
I encourage you to become active in this online community. Every physician member of the College already has an account with a unique user name and password. You should have received an email from DocMatter with more details. DocMatter representatives have reached out to members to set account preferences. If you missed these communications and would like to become active on DocMatter, please email support@docmatter.com.
J. Allen Meadows, MD, FACAAI
College president
