FAQs
- What does Sermo mean?
- How do I know that Sermo members are really MDs?
- How does Sermo make money?
- Are physicians willing to share their insights with Sermo's paying clients including financial institutions, regulatory bodies, specialty societies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and others?
- How will my personal information be used?
- How will Sermo paying clients use information from the Sermo community?
- How do I get started?
- I forgot my username and password, how do I retrieve them?
- What else can I do as a member of Sermo?
- What if I'm not a physician and I want to join Sermo?
- How are physicians compensated on Sermo?
- How can I make money on Sermo?
- Does posting to Sermo satisfy my reporting requirements on topics that authorities deem legally reportable?
- If I give an opinion about a medical question, is there any potential malpractice liability?
- There's obviously lots of utility for Sermo in being a place where physicians can share info about "off-label" uses of drugs. However, does reporting "off-label" uses of drugs make me potentially liable?
- Anything else I should know?
What does Sermo mean?
Sermo is Latin for conversation.
How do I know that Sermo members are really MDs?
Joining Sermo isn't easy. In fact, Sermo technology is the first of its kind to authenticate and credential physicians in real-time. Our state-of-the-art technology is working behind the scenes, re-validating physicians every time they sign in, ensuring that only physicians can become members.
How does Sermo make money?
Sermo's business model is one of information arbitrage, the opportunity that arises when breaking medical insights intersect with the demand for actionable, market-changing events in healthcare.
Are physicians willing to share their insights with Sermo's paying clients including financial institutions, regulatory bodies, specialty societies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and others?
Yes. Because the information discussed on Sermo is used to dramatically improve patient care. Sermo operates as a research mechanism, harnessing the collective power of physicians' thinking. The power is in the numbers no single physician acting alone can impact healthcare as dramatically as hundreds or thousands. On Sermo, physicians can be heard by these institutions and work together with them to make change happen.
How will my personal information be used?
In general, the only time your personal information will be used is to validate that you are a licensed physician in the United States or when Sermo contacts you in order to financially reward you for your contributions. Other than that, members will only know you by your user name. Please refer to our Privacy Section for further details.
How will Sermo paying clients use information from the Sermo community?
Sermo's clients will use data collected from the Sermo system to help forecast potential problems or new uses for commercially significant medical products and therapies, gain early insight into outbreaks and other changes in disease states and conditions that can affect the public health, perform epidemiologic research investigations, survey the opinion of practicing physicians on topics related to medical care, assess the success and adoption of best practice recommendations, look for opportunities to improve medical practice, and protect and promote patient safety and the public health.
Sermo doesn't presume the relative value of any piece of information. We leave it up to our clients to perceive that value and assign a dollar value on any piece of information that reflects their interest in a particular topic. Clients use it to further their goals and get information, the same way physicians use it to get their questions answered. By maintaining system availability to all different parties it creates a more diverse community. So all kinds of different ideas are afforded potential value as opposed to being given a pre-assigned market value. It is truly grassroots.
How do I get started?
You get started by going to the Join Sermo page and becoming a member. Once you are registered, go to what we call the Postings section of the site. Here, you interact with and question your colleagues. You do this by writing, voting or commenting on postings. Postings are your way into the Sermo system. As a registered user of Sermo, you have the ability to:
- Get answers to your questions by writing your own posting
- Answer your colleagues' questions
- Collaborate with colleagues by voting on or adding answers to a posting.
- Comment on your colleagues postings.
I forgot my username and password, how do I retrieve them?
Click here to retrieve your user name or reset your password.
What else can I do as a member of Sermo?
Once you are part of the Sermo community, you are free to discuss any topic relevant to the medical community, ask questions, monitor physicians observations, comment on postings, use keywords to search for information, search for postings within your specialty, submit an image to the community, bookmark and track your favorite postings, tell others how relevant you think a posting really is. In short, Sermo enables you to exchange medical knowledge with your colleagues instantaneously, and even send postings to colleagues who are not members of the community.
What if I'm not a physician and I want to join Sermo?
At the present time, Sermo is open to physicians licensed to practice in the United States. In the near future, we will be creating ways for non-physicians to access the Sermo community. If you would like to be kept up-to-date on our progress and be the first non-physician to join Sermo when the time comes, just go to the Join Sermo section and click on Non Physician and complete the contact information.
How are physicians compensated on Sermo?
Sermo has created a marketplace that aggregates and brings value to the collective knowledge that practicing physicians gain on the frontlines of medicine. Physicians participate in the marketplace, and are reimbursed for astute observations and insights in various ways. Physicians are financially rewarded for authoring or voting on postings deemed highly beneficial to the community.
How can I make money on Sermo?
There are two ways to be financially rewarded on Sermo. As the author of a posting that has been identified for payment, you will earn $100. If you vote on a posting that has been identified for payment, you will earn $20. In order to compensate physicians without biasing responses because they have been identified for payment, Sermo randomly selects postings for payment. Note: client postings have the same chance of having payment associated with them as do physician-authored postings on Sermo.
Does posting to Sermo satisfy my reporting requirements on topics that authorities deem legally reportable?
No. Even though Sermo includes some public health organizations among its clients and partners, posting to Sermo is in no way a substitute for filing forms required by local, state, and federal authorities. When dealing with any case or information potentially relevant to the public health always check with local health authorities about your legal requirements for reporting.
If I give an opinion about a medical question, is there any potential malpractice liability?
In plain terms, no. Malpractice is the failure of one rendering professional services to exercise that degree of skill and learning commonly applied under all the circumstances in the community by the average prudent reputable member of the profession with the result of injury, loss or damage to the recipient of those services or to those entitled to rely upon them. Providing opinions and information is not malpractice. Legally, the materials available through Sermo are for informational and educational purposes only and are not a substitute for the professional judgment of a health care professional in diagnosing and treating patients. Persons accessing information through the Sermo assume full responsibility for the use of the information.
There's obviously lots of utility for Sermo in being a place where physicians can share info about "off-label" uses of drugs. However, does reporting "off-label" uses of drugs make me potentially liable?
Posting information to Sermo on off-label uses does not necessarily expose a posting physician to liability. The Sermo forum is provided to allow the free exchange of scientific information. However, physicians posting to the Sermo forum should disclose any bias or financial conflicts of interest to allow physicians utilizing the information to be allowed to make fully informed medical decisions as to any proposed "off-label" use of medication. The full disclosure of all biases or conflicts will assure that doctors proscribing "off-label" treatments are exercising their independent informed medical judgment.
Anything else I should know?
When commenting on a posting or joining a discussion, please maintain appropriate standards and disclose any conflicts of interest you may have related to the topic of your posting. And on issues of concern to public health, be certain to file all legally required forms with local health authorities.
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