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What is MedShr?
Doctors have, to date, been limited in using their smartphones in a clinical environment because of issues concerning information governance and patient confidentiality. MedShr is an online private network and technology platform that enables doctors and registered healthcare professionals to share their knowledge and skills to improve healthcare. All patient images are anonymised and doctors use the MedShr App to obtain consent from the patient. Media is securely retained in Cloud storage, with no images held on the doctor’s phone. This places MedShr above the bar in terms of governance and confidentiality in the UK, Europe and USA. Doctors have described the MedShr platform variously as “The future of medical photography” “Web 3.0 for medicine “ and “Instagram meets YouTube for doctors”.
How much does it cost?
MedShr’s membership and app are free (download on the App Store and on the Google Play Store) as is access to the web platform.
With your membership, you’ll be able to connect with thousands of doctors, to edit new cases and to discuss cases. You’ll see publications and presentations the people of your network have published on MedShr.
Additional features such as access to certified training might require fees.
When and where can I use it?
MedShr has engaged with doctors and other healthcare professionals to develop a simple intuitive, easy-to-use interface that allows doctors to embed MedShr in their daily working lives. As a result, MedShr is available whenever and wherever you want; it’s made to be easy and fast for you to use it during your daily clinical practice. everywhere in the world to be confirmed?
Why would I use MedShr app/platform?
Case-based learning is the primary teaching method for medical students, and for post-graduate clinical and specialist training. As such it also forms a major part of medical school exams and professional exams for general practitioners and hospital specialists. MedShr enables doctors to discuss photographs, movies and medical images as clinical cases, creating sticky, engaging content for users.
MedShr’s case edition and discussion allows doctors to share challenging and educational cases, collaborate and receive rich and helping inputs from colleagues all over the world. As a member, you will be able to post a case, include images and a brief description and tag your case to mention which specialty(ies) is(are) concerned. Other members can comment on your case, give recommendations and professional opinions, and help you improve health and save lives.
What about patient consent?
First step is to decide whether or not you need the patient consent. You must respect your country and institution’s regulations regarding when to ask for a patient consent. We encourage you to ask for the consent as often as possible. Our approach to consent is consistent with national specialist societies and regulatory bodies in the UK, Europe and US, and well above the standards used by specialist conferences and other online education platforms that use patient images. For anonymised x-rays, CT scans, radiology images, blood test results, ECGs and similar images patient consent is not required. Any image or movie of a patient themselves or their tissue, including surgical or scope media, requires patient consent.
If it hasn’t been done with a written document your institution provides, MedShr allows you to gain consent very easily within the app. It is a unique feature where the doctor gains consent from the patient to use their clinical photos and movies in MedShr.
You just need to tap on the line “Consent on MedShr”, then fill the fields “First name”, “surname”, “Birthday” and “Gender” and eventually make the patient sign with his/her finger. If the patient can’t do it himself/herself, you can choose “Patient’s representative will sign”, select the kind of relationship, fill the field “First name” and “Surname” and make him/her sign. MedShr’s consent forms have been reviewed by legal counsellor to contain all the necessary information needed. Consent is retained in secure, encrypted cloud storage separately from the patient’s images. Cases that require consent will not be published to MedShr unless the member obtains consent for use.
What about patient privacy?
Patient privacy is a crucial issue in the digitalization of Healthcare. MedShr is a secure, confidential and private network. The identification information of the patient is only needed when consent is signed and in this situation is stored separately from the associated images. Moreover, members must remove any details that could identify the patient (tattoos, scars, …). An extremely easy-to-use tool is provided to blur any identifying detail on pictures.
Any members could also easily let us know that the case is inappropriate and should be removed by tapping on the “flag” icon. We will then immediately remove the case, make a manual verification and if the case doesn’t respect the patient privacy, we will destroy it and let the editor of the case know about the reasons.
Can I begin a case and finish it later?
The app has been designed to be very easy and fast to use. Most of the time, you’ll be able to “MedShr it” your case in less than 1 min. However, you can indeed stop when you’re editing a case. It will be store in your draft cases and you can come back later on it.
Can I post on LinkedIn/FB/Twitter interesting cases I’ve seen on MedShr?
You can indeed post a link to direct people to MedShr platform.
How do you know members are really physicians, nurses or medical students?
Members are verified in several stages through a very secure verification process.
For LinkedIn registration a series of data points are checked that correlate with genuine profiles for doctors and health care professionals.
Any email address can be used to register for MedShr but a professional email address must be supplied to which a verification link is sent.
In addition the MedShr administration team make manual check to ensure all members are doctors or registered healthcare professionals.
Members cannot view cases or discussion until they have been confirmed as doctors, nurses or registered health care professionals.
What do MedShr do with all the images?
Obviously, first use of images is for cases discussion with members of MedShr. You can choose whether you want the case to be Public (view by any members), to be shared in some Groups, or Private and shared with only some of the people you’re following.
Then, your case could potentially be selected to be published in external resources (medical journals, … ). In this situation, we will ask for your permission and you shall decide if you’d like to be named.
Eventually, our blog will feature some of the best case regularly and your case could also be among them.
I have another question
Please feel free to get in touch!