A trailblazer for the use of social media to connect GPs, Dr Kartik Modha is the brainchild behind Tiko’s GP Group (TGG) – a Facebook group boasting more than 3,000 members.
Now in its third year, it harnesses the power of the internet to enable GPs to share ideas, news and resources. Dr Modha says the site enables him to pick up clinical tips from case discussions and converse with ‘some of the most truly influential and inspirational GPs of a generation’.
‘TGG GPs have warmer interactions when they meet in the real world and there is a constant virtual bloom of thoughts daily that may one day lead to great innovations in healthcare,’ he adds.
Dr Modha works as a locum GP in London and his other digital project, myHealthSpecialist.com launched last year and now has more than 750 users.
At its most basic level, it helps GPs and patients to find and print off the most up to date NHS/private practice information of local specialists. He says: ‘Our first members-only event will be in November 2014 in Central London and promises to be something very special.
‘We have many practices in Barnet, Camden, Westminster and Islington already using it. Training practices and those with a high proportion of private referrals have found it particularly useful.’
His ability to use social media as a tool to connect his colleagues definitely fits with his belief that had he not become a GP he would have been a good party planner.
On a personal level, he got married last October and describes his wife, a prosthodontist, as his biggest influence. He says: ‘She not only inspires me but always listens to me rabbiting on about this idea or another and thankfully screens the public from most of the outlandish ones – except metal socks; they will have their day.’
