Medical photo-sharing app gains 1 million users

Two images that were shared to the Figure 1 app are pictured. (Photos from Figure 1)

A Toronto-based startup that's been described as the Instagram for doctors and healthcare professionals has passed a new benchmark, gaining more than a million users.

Figure 1 announced the news in a blog post on Tuesday.

The company's app, first launched in 2013, allows users to share images of their toughest medical cases with other specialists around the world. All the photos shared on the app are stripped of any identifiers, to protect patients’ privacy. While anyone can sign up to view the photos, only verified medical professionals can post and comment.

Other users can then comment on the image, give their expert opinion, or ask for more details about the case.

Beyond seeking diagnoses from other medical professionals, the app is also being used in different ways.

Users often share interesting cases as a way to spread knowledge of new procedures, techniques or technology. Other times they share poignant, heartwarming images and anecdotes that have profoundly touched them.

And sometimes they simply support one another, recognizing the tough nature of medical and health professions.

Figure 1 hopes that, by connecting members of the global medical community, expertise and experience can be crowdsourced, and more patients can be helped.

Here are five cases that highlight how Figure 1 is being used to connect the medical community. *Warning: Graphic images.*

1) A nurse working in northern Haiti posted a picture of a newborn infant that was presenting with pustules all over its scalp and neck. The nurse noted that the facility where the child was born had no access to lab testing, so the nurse posted the photo in the hopes of getting a diagnosis.

More than 16,000 users offered their help, with one doctor diagnosing it as a benign conditioncalled “ neonatal pustular melanosis” that would go away on its own without treatment.Others doctors agreed with that diagnosis.

Although the mother and child unexpectedly left the hospital before the nurse could follow up, the nurse was reassured by other users that she had done “everything” she could to help.

(Photo from Figure 1)

2) A paramedic posted incredible before and after photos of a cyclist whose skull was partially reconstructed after a fall. In the before shot, the right-side of the cyclist's skull is clearly shown shattered in several locations. The after shot shows how mesh was used to provide stability and a structure for soft-tissue reconstruction.

(Photo from Figure 1)

3) In a particularly poignant photo, a surgeon holds a tiny heart moments before it is transplanted into a 13-month-old child. "Wow, lots of emotions looking at that picture. Amazing gift a grieving family has given," one medical resident commented.

(Photo from Figure 1)

4) Users often show support for each other, quickly correcting anyone who starts off a post with the self-deprecating phrase "I'm just a nurse…" or "I'm just a paramedic…" For example, when one user commented "I'm just a nurse and I'm learning so much from you guys," another user quickly scolded the nurse.

"Cut the 'just a nurse' crap, we all know better than that," the user countered.

5) Similar to Instagram and other photo-sharing apps, Figure 1 users have shared some simply incredible photos. In one image, taken from a fundoscopy, a registered nurse posted a photo of the inner workings of an eyeball.

(Photo from Figure 1)

In another image, a lab technician posted an image of an ovary as seen from their microscope. "Histology can be really beautiful!" the user wrote in the caption.

(Photo from Figure 1)