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Figure 1 logo.[1]

Figure 1 is a Toronto, Ontario-based online social networking service for healthcare professionals to post and comment on medical images.

Figure 1 was founded in Toronto by Dr. Joshua Landy, Richard Penner and Gregory Levey. The platform launched in North America in May 2013 and is now available in more than 100 countries.[2]

The privately held company reports more than 500,000 healthcare professionals uses its app and website.[3]

Funding

In 2013, Figure 1 launched with $2 million (CDN) in seed money, with Rho Canada Ventures and Version One Ventures led the investment.[4]

In 2015, the company added $5 million (USD) to its Series A financing round,[5] which was led by Union Square Ventures, an early investor in Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy, and Kickstarter.

This brings the total round to $9 million (USD).

Reception

Critics have called Figure 1's content "gross[6]" and "gruesome".[7]

The app's founder said the "very colourful images" are what medics see every day.[8] "It's a transparent view into a world you rarely get to see," he told the BBC.

When the company launched in Europe in 2014, privacy concerns were raised over the sharing of personal medical information.[9] The app has a built-in consent form which every patient signs via a smartphone, as well as tools make it easy to anonymize an image.[10]

Before the company launched in 2013, it claimed that 13 percent of medical professionals were already using their smartphones to share images with one another via email or text message.[11]

Figure 1 documented the spread of MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in May, 2014.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Figure 1 (@Figure1) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  2. ^ "Like Instagram for doctors, Figure 1 app now has 500,000 users". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  3. ^ "The Social Network Where Doctors Swap Gross Pics of Patients". WIRED. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  4. ^ Kolodny, Lora (2013-12-09). "Medicine's Answer to Instagram, Figure 1, Raises C$2M". Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  5. ^ "The Daily Startup: Figure 1 Snaps Up $5 Million for Medical Image-Sharing App". 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  6. ^ "Physicians use 'Instagram of doctors' to share medical oddities". Mail Online. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  7. ^ "I'm addicted to the gruesome and beautiful photos on this Instagram for doctors". The Verge. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  8. ^ "'Instagram for doctors' to be launched in Europe - BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  9. ^ Reynaud, Florian. "Aux Etats-Unis, les médecins ont leur propre Instagram pour s'entraider". Le Monde.fr (in French). ISSN 1950-6244. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  10. ^ Birchard, Karen (2013-09-03). "Canadian medical image app number one in the US". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 185 (12): E569–E569. doi:10.1503/cmaj.109-4527. ISSN 0820-3946. PMC 3761029. PMID 23857853.
  11. ^ "Instagram for doctors: How one app is solving medical mysteries". Vox. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  12. ^ "Toronto-made app helps doctors learn MERS symptoms". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
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