More and more young doctors and medical students are using the medical messenger Siilo – among them are the members of the Alliance of Young Doctors, the working group JUNGE DGIM (German Society for Internal Medicine) and the AGA Students (Students of the Society for Arthroscopy and Joint Surgery). They use Siilo to exchange information with colleagues, organise their association activities and continue their education.
They belong to Generation Y, the last cohorts to grow up without smartphones. But they are the first generation of doctors who can take advantage of the possibilities of modern communication and digitalisation in their professional activities right from the start – and usually want to do so. We are talking about young doctors and medical students born between 1980 and 1999[1].
Association activities, networking and continuing education
Mira Faßbach (34), a urology specialist at the Helios Klinikum Duisburg, already knew Siilo from her professional life and recently introduced the messenger at the Alliance of Young Doctors (BJÄ), where she also acted as spokesperson until last year. “We actually organise everything via Siilo. It is really practical for external enquiries, for example. We often get invitations to health policy forums and interview requests from the media, and then we use Siilo to agree on who can take over and what message we want to communicate,” Mira Faßbach explains. In addition, she now uses the messenger extensively to view case discussions and thus continue her education. Networking is also very important to her. “It’s great that I can reach so many colleagues quickly and easily. That’s what I would miss the most if I had to go without Siilo.”
Dr. Christian Becker (34), assistant physician at the Heart Centre Göttingen, has had similar experiences: “In the working group JUNGE DGIM (German Society for Internal Medicine) we organise our association activities via Siilo, plan our political work and discuss cases”. In his working group, more than half of all members are already registered with the medical messenger. “Access is easy and we communicate more. For example, we no longer take votes by mail, but conveniently on Siilo,” says Christian Becker.
Digital communication as part of everyday clinical life
“For me, it feels very natural to constantly receive digital input and to exchange information with colleagues via my smartphone. It’s no different for me in my private life and that’s why I also appreciate it in my professional life,” says Kim Viehmeier. The 28-year-old future joint surgeon is head of the AGA Students (Students of the AGA – Society for Arthroscopy and Joint Surgery). “Siilo has greatly improved the exchange within the AGA students. We have set up our own network through which, for example, we post free training places or organise carpooling to congresses and conferences.”
Siilo is the largest network for healthcare professionals in Europe with a total of around 420,000 users. Since entering the market in 2019, the network has been growing rapidly in Germany – thanks to Generation Y, among others. Young doctors actively contribute to the growth of the network by inviting colleagues to Siilo. To date, more than 29,000 invitations have been sent via Messenger in Germany. Kim Viehmeier also originally became aware of Siilo through invitations from fellow students.
Overcoming inhibitions digitally
Association activities, networking, further education – for the many representatives of Generation Y in the health sector, it is completely normal to do all this (also) via smartphone. “It is always nice to experience how much the young generation in particular benefits from the advantages of the messenger. As a surgeon, I know how much it can help to get uncomplicated professional advice and to exchange ideas with experienced colleagues. At the beginning of my career, however, it was often not easy for me and other surgeons to approach such colleagues directly. Siilo facilitates the exchange and that is a great motivation for our work,” says Siilo’s CEO Joost Bruggeman.
Photo credits: Mira Faßbach: Helios Klinikum Duisburg, Christian Becker: UMG, HZG, Kim Viehmeier: private.