Pandento

Hi,

Here's my first written idea, after the one to write down my ideas.

A social network designed for dentists. I actually thought much about this one because my fiancée is a dentist.

Problem:

There are a lot of dentists around and not all of them are perfect. Actually nobody is perfect. It appears that in many many cases dentists take the wrong decision (or at least not the best one). Patients never understand the mistake because everything is relative when treating teeth :) and people trust their doctor.

Motivation:

I was surprised to realize that dentists are willing to collaborate. They share the hardest cases with their friends, seek better solutions and keep in touch with modern technologies. My humble observation is that each one of them talks to a few (1-3) other dentists, and she does it only for the most complicated cases. They mostly talk and share x-ray images.

So why not create an environment where dentists share their problems to a whole community? This would let them share the knowledge of a lot more than 2-3 people. And also make them share not only the hardest cases but more trivial ones, resulting in better understanding and better treatment.

On the other hand, I, as a user, will be happy to know that my dentist solves a lot of problems, argues and helps his friends with their patients. I could even post my pictures, x-ray images, describe my problem and see if the treatment I got makes any sense.

Implementation:

The system should look like a portal where a dentist could spend much time reading news, answering questions, seeking solutions, discussing and studying new treatments, etc.

For the question-answering part I believe an "experts exchange" - like system will be appropriate and motivating enough. People will be able to post their questions and earn points by sharing useful knowledge. The usefulness of the shared knowledge is determined only by other dentists. A patient should be able to filter the top rated specialists in his region, so dentists will have one more incentive for getting higher scores.

In order to be useful, the system should provide tools for publishing digital x-ray images, intra-oral camera records, and all kinds of digital data which dentists commonly use. In the past few years stomatology technologies developed, so this should not be a problem.

Besides the fancy forum, dentists should be able to share their knowledge in the form of articles, how-tos, advices etc. There should be a comments section and rating for each of those posts, which will again result in better/worse total score.

Perhaps some highly educated and experienced doctors will be needed in the beginning, so that the network gains speed, but once there are enough posts and people, I believe the system will be in favor of everyone.

Benefits:

Absolutely disastrous dentists will be able to ask for help and provide better treatment.
Absolutely experienced and educated professionals will gain more reputation and clients.
(Those two are fictional, everybody will be in between)
Clients will know if their doctor asks a lot of silly questions or rather solves even the most complicated puzzles.
I will have a powerful, vital social network, earn a lot of money and retire to the Hawaii at the age of 30.

Enjoy :)