Credentialing for the virtual world

The Figure 1 app, which has been called “Instagram for doctors,” might help physicians make difficult diagnoses more rapidly by seeing what their colleagues have encountered. It might also provide a repository of visual information about a wide variety of afflictions. The creators of this service claim that every picture posted is first vetted by experts (one would hope) and only credentialed healthcare professionals may upload information.

Call me a skeptic. What happens when a spuriously credentialed practitioner uploads information, or provides unqualified opinions? This type of thing happens all too frequently offline—can anyone prevent it from happening online? Does Figure 1 employ credentialing professionals to verify users’ expertise? Also, can the Figure 1 service be hacked, and how are the images protected?

Apparently there are many Figure 1 users who don’t share my trust issues—more than 100,000 images have already been uploaded and shared, according to the BBC News article.

Thanks for reading!

Mary Stevens, managing editor, Credentialing Resource Center