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Aussie building social network for surgeons

Medical media entrepreneur, Professor Andrew Renaut, has revealed his latest undertaking — developing a new web-based networking project for the Aussie surgical community, which he says is like "Facebook for surgeons".
Written by Luke Hopewell, Contributor

Medical media entrepreneur, Professor Andrew Renaut, has revealed his latest undertaking — developing a new web-based networking project for the Aussie surgical community, which he says is like "Facebook for surgeons".

Chest x-ray

Professor Andrew Renaut is working on a professional networking site for surgeons. (Chest x-ray image by Aidan Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0)

After noticing a gap in the market, Renaut started work on a web-platform where doctors and medical students can come together to share knowledge, surgical techniques and build professional relationships within the community.

Renaut told ZDNet Australia that he wanted to bring professionals together to interact and share methods, procedures and research, in the same way social networking brings friends together.

"You'll be able to create your own profile, create content and share it with other professionals," he said.

The professor said he felt that students will be the primary beneficiaries of the site.

"Medical education will really benefit if [there is a] sharing of knowledge that people are so keen to be involved with... It's the way that Generation Y have come to learn — by sharing knowledge. It's such a valuable part of an education process," he said.

The professional networking platform is slated for release before the year's end. Production began in April.

If successful, Renaut plans to adapt the platform to other fields such as university and business networking.

"Initially, we're just targeting the surgical community, but we can replicate the platform and [present it] across different businesses like universities."

Professor Renaut has also produced surgical broadcasts for the benefit of medical students through the Australian Institute of Medical Education since 2006.

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