After reports last week of COVID-19 misinformation and anti-vaccine content posted from physician members flooding its platform, Doximity's CEO told CNBC Aug. 10 that the misinformation comes from less than 0.1 percent of its users.
"Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in comments that we’ve had to remove because we found them to contain violations of our community guidelines, which explicitly prohibit the posting of medical misinformation," Jeff Tangney told CNBC. "While commenters making inaccurate claims represent a minority of our members, we do recognize the need to improve our ability to identify and quickly remove misinformation from our network."
Mr. Tangney told CNBC that the inaccurate claims represented less than 0.1 percent of its members.
CNBC reported Aug. 6 that the health IT telehealth and networking platform, often referred to as the "LinkedIn for doctors," has been riddled with anti-vaccine comments posted by its physician members. The platform is home to 1.8 million members, including 80 percent of U.S. physicians.
Doximity held its initial public offering in June. Since going public, the company said it doubled its revenue in the first quarter of 2021 and projects sales of $269.5 million to $299.5 million, an annual increase of at least 43 percent from $206.9 million, according to the report.
After its earnings results posted Aug. 10, Doximity said it is boosting revenue by providing more targeted marketing services to hospitals and drugmakers, which can reach specialized audiences on Doximity's news feed. The company also said it has a new telehealth offering for physicians to communicate and hold virtual visits with patients.
Editor's note: Becker's updated this article at 11:30 a.m. CST Aug. 11 to correct the percentage quoted from Mr. Tangney.