I wrote earlier this year, about a new site called CrowdMed, which aimed to crowdsource medical diagnosis.  The site works by allowing users, who don’t have to be medically trained, to place bets on photos of particular conditions.  If their bets are right, their reputation increases, and of course the patient gets an alternative diagnosis.

A similar service has launched recently called Figure1.  Whilst CrowdMed opened up the process to non-professionals, it seems Figure1 is aiming their site purely at the pros.  The service allows healthcare professionals to upload photos of a patients condition, create online discussions around the images and reference a database of past uploads.

Figure1 has been developed by the healthcare tech startup Movable Science and is designed to operate in a similar way to Instagram.  Healthcare professionals will be able to create their own image feed from the cases they deal with.  The images will be uploaded via a mobile app that will automatically protect patients identities by blocking out their faces.  Users can also block out individual areas, such as birth marks should they wish.

Images can be tagged and annotated, whilst users can select who else has access to individual images, or indeed their feed.  It’s hoped that discussions will ensue around each image, thus furthering understanding and improving diagnosis.

The app is free to download from the app store, and the video below explains the service in a bit more detail.