This Popular Platform Is Dubbed "LinkedIn for Doctors"

Doximity (DOCS 1.48%), the medical professionals' social network and telemedicine company, is often likened to Microsoft's LinkedIn. In this episode of "The Health & Fitness Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on March 25, Fool.com contributor Rachel Warren discusses that and the many other ways the company meets its market's needs.

Rachel Warren: Doximity, I don't know where I've been, but this was just a newer company to me. This isn't one that I was really aware of, and then we were discussing it recently in the chat, so I did some more research. But for anyone who's not familiar, Doximity is marketed as a basically a social network for medical professionals. Through the Doximity platform, medical professionals, they can connect with other physicians but they can also actually connect with patients. Doximity has been called the LinkedIn for doctors, which I thought was a really interesting description of how its business works. The company makes money in a variety of ways, which I'll get into a little bit more here in a minute. They charge subscription fees, for example, for placing ads on the platform.

They actually also do leverage telehealth solutions, so an interesting play on the telehealth space that I was not aware of and excited to dive into more. But Doximity was founded over a decade ago in 2010. It is now the leading digital platform for U.S. medical professionals. The company says that their network includes over 80% of U.S. physicians across all states and every medical specialty, as well as 50% of all nurse practitioners and physician's assistants as verified members, so a massive network of medical professionals all over the country. They say, "We are physicians-first, putting technology to work for doctors instead of the other way around. ... Our cloud-based platform provides our members with tools, specifically built for medical professionals." This means, if you are a medical professional using Doximity, you can do everything from collaborating with fellow physicians, coordinating patient care, actually conducting telehealth visits, but you can also, they say, stay up to date with the latest medical news and research because there's basically these pages, like on LinkedIn but for physicians and other medical professionals, where you can see the latest data that it's coming out.

As I mentioned, Doximity, one of the key uses of the platform is as a medical professional, whether you're a physician, a nurse practitioner, you can communicate with colleagues on the platform, fellow medical professionals, but you can also share information with patients as well while being fully HIPAA compliant. Doximity also offers a tailored social news feed with medical topics. For example, medical professionals can find posts on the platform much like you would on LinkedIn that you can like or you can comment on or you can share. Medical providers can actually post their practices on the Doximity platform with contact information as well as their resume. Then they can also use the Doximity app to actually connect directly with patients as well as to send HIPAA secured faxes. They can communicate with patients through Doximity using video, text calls, there's also functionality where providers can send and have documents signed and dated and annotated.

In addition to being a great way for medical providers to not only connect with patients but also to connect with fellow medical professionals, there's also an application on Doximity where medical professionals can look for jobs and read reviews on, for example, residency programs in the U.S. Doximity medical providers use the website, but there's also apparently a tablet app as well as a mobile app. One of the things that was really interesting that when I was reading about the company was when Doximity went public, which I believe was just in 2021, if memory serves correctly, Doximity's IPO, they actually had 15% of shares that were reserved for doctor members, so that was interesting as well. As I mentioned, Doximity, they make money in a variety of ways. One of the ways is on a subscription-fee basis. Most of the revenue that Doximity makes comes from charging subscription fees for ads on its platform.

For example, Doximity partners with a variety of pharmaceutical entities who then have ad campaigns on the platform. It's been said that Doximity has the top 20 drugmakers on its platform, displaying ads to reach medical professionals. Doximity also has hiring solutions on its platform, so it does make money that way as well. Another key way Doximity makes revenue is from that telehealth aspect of its business. Telehealth solutions, those are available to medical providers as well as large medical groups as well as individual practitioners and that means that you can have a virtual visit, either via audio or video with your doctor through Doximity. Then customers pay a subscription fee to access those telehealth products, and the pricing depends on the type of customer whether you're a larger health system or whether you're an individual practitioner, that would impact the revenue or the subscription model that you pay, so very, very interesting company.