I’ve recently written about MedicalCavity.com, a site that collects all the important medical articles, images and videos for us and is being updated automatically. The founder of the site is Dr. Subrahmanyam Karuturi, the dotcom doctor, who kindly answered some of my questions. He is a good example how a doctor can use the tools of web 2.0 wisely and efficiently.

Please tell us more about a few websites that you have created. Which one is your favourite?

I am managing many websites as of now. Just to name a few, Doctors Hangout, Doctor.VG, Doctor World, Medical Cavity and Health Chapter. Each website has a mission of its own. Among them, I like Doctors Hangout the most.

You manage several sites. How and when did you get involved with the web 2.0 world?

I have a special interest in information technology. Web designing is my hobby. In my medical school life, I got fascinated by computers and internet which made me part of this Medical Web 2.0 World. I want to leave my foot print on Medical Web 2.0 World and so constantly think of new ideas which can add value to this World. I want to make this world a better place than when I came into it.

As a doctor, what do you think about the impact of web 2.0 on medicine and healthcare?

We are very much lucky to witness the revolution Internet has brought to medicine. It is changing the way we live, the way we communicate, the way we collaborate and the way we think. It is creating an air of excitement and curiosity among us. Internet is the biggest and greatest innovation of mankind. Medicine is described both as an art and science. In future, medicine will be described as a combination of art, science and technology. Web 2.0 will be inseparable from Medicine in the coming decades. We are going to witness new technology innovations in coming future which will change the foundations of healthcare industry.

Just imagine a group of monkeys. Monkeys can learn only from their parents and other group members. They can’t learn from other monkeys on another hill or another side of the world. They have to devise their own method of peeling a banana every generation. Doctors using tools like Doctors Hangout can communicate, share and learn medical knowledge by interacting with Doctors on the other side of the World. Thanks to Web 2.0 technologies for making this happen.

Which web 2.0 tools do you use in your practice or research?

• RSS Feeds – I update myself with medical and technology world by subscribing to feeds of my interest through Google Reader. Nowadays, I am glancing at the medical world through Medical Cavity.
• Social Bookmarking – I use Delicious to organize and tag my bookmarks. I use Doctor World to find some new exciting websites in the medical world.
• Social Networking – I use Doctors Hangout, Orkut and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family. I share my medical knowledge, images and videos on Doctors Hangout regularly. I use Doctors Hangout to keep in touch with my professional colleagues and to get new professional contacts in the medical world.
• Images – I use Flickr and DoctorsHangout Images to organize my medical images.
• Videos – I use YouTube and DoctorsHangout Video to organize my medical videos.
• Wiki – I regularly use Wikipedia and usually don’t trust information on it which has no references. Three other medical wikis to note are AskDrWiki, Ganfyd and Medpedia.
• Forums – I use Doctor.VG to share and update my knowledge.
• Search – I use Google as my primary search tool. I own a Nokia E90 mobile phone, which I use to find and research new topics during my hospital rounds. I use Opera web browser on my phone to search Google, PubMed and Google Scholar. I use Google Blog Search to search topics on my interest in the blogosphere.
• Blog – I use Blogger for my blogging purposes. WordPress is an interesting alternative.
• Documents – I use Google Docs to create and share my documents and presentations.
• Virtual World – I use Second Life occasionally.

How do you select the sources you follow on MedicalCavity.com?

Most of the sources included in Medical Cavity are journals with highest impact factor and trusted health news sources. Most of the new source discovery comes from our readers.

Are you currently working on a new service or website? What are your plans for the near future?

Presently I have many projects yet to be launched. They are still in the incubation period as I am a little bit busy doing my residency in Internal Medicine.