Talk:Sermo

message: Hello Wikipedians, Sermo has hired me to submit a variety of updates to its Wikipedia page. I’ve disclosed my conflict on the "Talk" pages for both Sermo and myself, and I've narrowed down these updates to those that I think will most benefit our readers. Here's the 1st of 2 batches. Thank you for your consideration.
=== 1. Breaking Up the “History” Section ===
The bulk of the page consists of the "history" section, which consists of one long paragraph. For easier reading, can we split this paragraph in half? Maybe start a new paragraph with the sentence that begins, "Following this"?
Thus, we’d change this:
 The community was founded by physician Daniel Palestrant in 2005 as an adverse effect reporting system, in response to what Palestrant considered failures in the reporting systems failed the US healthcare system during Merck's 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall. In 2007 Sermo raised $26.7 million and in 2011 it raised an additional $3.5 million. The site developed into a discussion board covering a variety of non-clinical and clinical topics. The physician founders sold the business in 2012 to WorldOne Then in July 2012 the community was acquired by WorldOne, Inc. and rebranded to "SERMO" in 2014. Following this the community expanded from the US into 6 additional English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. In September, 2014 the community was also expanded to Spain and Mexico. Sermo is both a social networking site and medical crowdsourcing entity for physicians to receive aid on the medical problems of their patients from other physicians.
to this:
 The community was founded by physician Daniel Palestrant in 2005 as an adverse effect reporting system, in response to what Palestrant considered failures in the reporting systems failed the US healthcare system during Merck's 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall. In 2007 Sermo raised $26.7 million and in 2011 it raised an additional $3.5 million. The site developed into a discussion board covering a variety of non-clinical and clinical topics. The physician founders sold the business in 2012 to WorldOne Then in July 2012 the community was acquired by WorldOne, Inc. and rebranded to "SERMO" in 2014.
 Following this the community expanded from the US into 6 additional English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. In September, 2014 the community was also expanded to Spain and Mexico. Sermo is both a social networking site and medical crowdsourcing entity for physicians to receive aid on the medical problems of their patients from other physicians.
=== 2. Updating a Footnote and Adding a Comma ===
The "history" section says this:
 Following this the community expanded from the US into 6 additional English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. 
The footnote for this sentence says only, "Major medical crowdsourcing site opens in Canada". And because the original link is dead, it’s difficult to corroborate these claims.
Happily, the Wayback Machine provides the missing details.
We may also want to add a comma after "following this." Here's a revised sentence:
 Following this, the community expanded from the US into 6 additional English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
=== 3. Correcting a Typo ===
The "history" section begins as follows:
 The community was founded by physician Daniel Palestrant in 2005 as an adverse effect reporting system, in response to what Palestrant considered failures in the reporting systems failed the US healthcare system during Merck's 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall. 
The problematic part of this sentence is the following redundancy:
 failures in the reporting systems failed the US healthcare system
Here’s a suggested tweak:
 failures in the US healthcare system
We may also want to change "the community," at the beginning of the sentence, to just "Sermo" (or "the company"). Thus:
 Sermo was founded by physician Daniel Palestrant in 2005 as an adverse effect reporting system, in response to what Palestrant considered failures in the US healthcare system during Merck's 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall.
=== 4. Clarifying the Sale to WorldOne ===
The "history" section says this:
 The physician founders sold the business in 2012 to WorldOne Then in July 2012 the community was acquired by WorldOne, Inc.
These two sentences (which, unfortunately, are not separated by a period) actually refer to the same thing — WorldOne bought Sermo. Also, the source is an article from a Forbes contributor. Here’s a suggested rewrite, which is simpler and is sourced to two news outlets:
 In 2012, WorldOne, a data-collection company, bought Sermo.
=== 5. Clarifying "M.D.s and D.O.s" ===
The first sentence says that Sermo is "open to licensed M.D.s and D.O.s."
a. I’m not sure that most readers know the difference between an "M.D." and a "D.O."
b. Per WP:LEAD, this level of detail seems excessive for the lead section.
c. Most media describe Sermo as open to "physicians."
Would it therefore be more helpful to our readers to just say that Sermo is "open to licensed physicians"?
=== 6. Adding HQ to the Infobox ===
Should we add Sermo’s headquarters to the "infobox"?
 Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
According to a 2007 article in the New York Times ("Doctors' online forum offers tips to Wall Street"), "Sermo, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, set up the [web]site nine months ago."
Signed, BlueRoses13 (talk) 16:16, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi , I have reviewed your entire request and you are approved to edit the page to update each of your proposed changes. I have marked this as reviewed, please reply here with additional questions or add  for any new proposed changes. Best, SpencerT•C 00:18, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi , Thank you very much for reviewing these requests. As you suggested, I’ve incorporated them directly (one by one, with a “COI” note in each “edit summary”). Best, BlueRoses13 (talk) 15:20, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  6 Tweaks (COI) 

message: Should we add Sermo’s headquarters to the "infobox"?
 Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
According to a 2007 article in the New York Times ("Doctors' online forum offers tips to Wall Street"), "Sermo, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, set up the [web]site nine months ago."
Signed, BlueRoses13 (talk) 16:16, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi , I have reviewed your entire request and you are approved to edit the page to update each of your proposed changes. I have marked this as reviewed, please reply here with additional questions or add  for any new proposed changes. Best, SpencerT•C 00:18, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi , Thank you very much for reviewing these requests. As you suggested, I’ve incorporated them directly (one by one, with a “COI” note in each “edit summary”). Best, BlueRoses13 (talk) 15:20, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  6. Adding HQ to the Infobox 

message: Hello again, As I mentioned on Jan. 18, I’d now like to submit a second set of requests. These tweaks will make the article more accurate and simpler. I’m tagging Spencer in light of their response to my first request. Thank you all.
=== 1. Founding ===
The “history” section says that Sermo was founded “in response to what Palestrant considered failures in the US healthcare system during Merck's 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall.”
There’s no source for this claim, so I tracked down https://medicalrepublic.com.au/sermo-can-trust/2717, which says the following:
“Set up in 2005 by US physician Daniel Palestrant, SERMO (Latin for discussion) started life as an adverse effect reporting system after perceived failures in the system at the time before Merck’s 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall.”
Since the Medical Republic isn’t a reliable source, I tracked down a 2006 article in CNN (“A MySpace for physicians”), which says this:
Palestrant “noticed that many doctors saw the red flags for Merck's flawed painkiller Vioxx ... long before they turned into major scandals in the mainstream press.”
Thus, we may want to add, to the existing sentence, a footnote to the CNN article:
 Sermo was founded by physician Daniel Palestrant in 2005 as an adverse effect reporting system, in response to what Palestrant considered failures in the US healthcare system during Merck's 2004 Vioxx (Rofecoxib) recall.
=== 2. Continents and Countries ===
The first sentence says that Sermo is “open to licensed physicians in the United States and 149 other countries across Europe, North and South America, Africa, and English-speaking Oceania.”
Per WP:LEAD, specifying 5 continents in the lead section seems excessive. It also seems unusual to say the U.S. plus 149 other countries — and to call out Oceania, let-alone English-speaking Oceania.
Would it be more helpful to our readers to just say, Sermo is “open to licensed physicians in 150 countries”?
I don’t think an additional citation is necessary — the U.S. + 149 other countries = 150 countries — but if you’d like a source for 150, how’s this? In October 2022, Sermo’s CEO told Everyday Health, “We hit over a million doctors this year, in 150 countries.”
=== 3. Opinion Polls ===
The “community” section says this:
 Sermo also has twice weekly opinion polls on topics related to physicians issues.
This claim is sourced to an article from 2016. But there’s no mention of the polls’ frequency in this article, and Sermo tells me the polls aren’t conducted on a set schedule, so can we remove “twice weekly”?
Here’s a revised sentence:
 Sermo also conducts opinion polls on topics related to physician issues.
Note: For grammar, I also changed “has” to “conducts” and “physicians” to “physician.”
For additional background info, see these articles from Time, Forbes, and Fierce Healthcare, each of which references a specific Semo poll.
=== 4. Company Name (“SERMO”) ===
We’d like to remove the line, in the first sentence, that Sermo is “stylized as SERMO.” This used to be true (see, for example, this news release from 2015 and this news article from 2016), but Sermo no longer uses all caps.
 
An article from October 2022, “‘I Am Not The Doctor For You’: Physicians’ Attitudes About Caring For People With Disabilities,” in the academic journal Health Affairs, confirms the new spelling: “We used a professional social networking site for physicians (Sermo) to recruit 8-10 physicians for each focus group.”
 
Similarly, an article from October 2022, “Health Makers: Peter Kirk, 51, CEO of Sermo,” in the publication Everyday Health, refers to “Sermo,” not “SERMO.”
=== 5. Company Name (“Sermo”) ===
The “history” section says that “‘Sermo’ was rebranded to ‘SERMO’ in 2014.” Right after this, can we add the following sentence, which is sourced to Politico?
 By 2019, “SERMO” had been changed back to “Sermo.”
=== 6. Origin of Name ===
Can we add the origin of Sermo’s name to the first sentence?
Sermo’s website says that Sermo is “named after the Latin word for conversation.” This fact is corroborated in a 2015 article from American City Business Journals, “SERMO: The #1 Social Network for Doctors is Going International,” which says, “In Latin, Sermo means ‘conversation’ or ‘discussion.’”
Thus, here’s a revised first sentence:
 Sermo (which is named after the Latin word for “conversation”)...
Signed,
BlueRoses13 (talk) 14:11, 9 March 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Done  Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 15:36, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Done  Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 15:38, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you very much! Signed, BlueRoses13 (talk) 01:22, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  6 More Tweaks (COI) 

message: Can we add the origin of Sermo’s name to the first sentence?
Sermo’s website says that Sermo is “named after the Latin word for conversation.” This fact is corroborated in a 2015 article from American City Business Journals, “SERMO: The #1 Social Network for Doctors is Going International,” which says, “In Latin, Sermo means ‘conversation’ or ‘discussion.’”
Thus, here’s a revised first sentence:
 Sermo (which is named after the Latin word for “conversation”)...
Signed,
BlueRoses13 (talk) 14:11, 9 March 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Done  Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 15:36, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Done  Johannes (Talk) (Contribs) (Articles) 15:38, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you very much! Signed, BlueRoses13 (talk) 01:22, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  6. Origin of Name 

message: Hi there,
On April 19, 2023, User:Little Professor (rightly) added a "failed verification" tag to the following claim: That Sermo is active in 150 countries.
That claim is currently sourced to an article from 2016, which puts the number of countries at 24. 
Here's a better source: In October 2022, Sermo’s CEO told Everyday Health, "We hit over a million doctors this year, in 150 countries."
Will this new source suffice to remove the tag?
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Signed,
BlueRoses13 (talk) 00:44, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello  Per WP:INTERVIEWS  DreamRimmer (talk) 08:03, 11 June 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Fair point! Thanks, @DreamRimmer. Signed, BlueRoses13 (talk) 12:20, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

text:  Partly done:  I moved it down and attributed it to Sermo as a claim. Actualcpscm (talk) 09:23, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

text: Thanks so much, @Actualcpscm, for finding a way to make this request work! Great solution. All the best, BlueRoses13 (talk) 12:21, 11 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  150 Countries(COI)