Norway’s dentistry industry is heavily regulated to protect patient privacy. Yet, it’s also a connected community of professionals who like to share insights and discuss complex cases. ViDent’s co-founders were central to the existing communication flow, managing a private Facebook group where dentists connected with peers to address patient and industry topics. Such was the demand for this dentist-specific forum that ViDent quickly outgrew what Facebook could offer. And the co-founders promptly realized they would require a bespoke platform that could both satisfy the needs of dentists alongside adhering to Norwegian regulations. Moreover, the new platform would have to help dentists keep up-to-date with obligatory training requirements, and so offer courses, certification and a calendar of events - all in one central hub.
Redvike collaborated with ViDent to establish the concept of a ‘Stack Overflow for dentists:’ a niche forum to give participants a private space to discuss hyper-specific subjects relating to dentistry - spanning everything from particular teeth to certain surgical procedures, to complex patient cases. For the platform to be effective, users would have to be able to search for relevant subjects, post questions, read threads, and upvote the best answers. Moreover, it would need a forum manager to vet new participants before they could respond to threads or up-vote responses - ensuring the platform remained on-subject and spam-free. The same manager would also take responsibility for moderation, removing any patient information or material that breached Norwegian regulation. Alongside having the forum capability, the product would also need to host the second type of user: training providers. So, it would require a module to allow course operators to list training services. Then redirect dentists to the appropriate website should they show interest in a particular certification.
An extended four-month development period allowed both teams to explore requirements fully. As such, we’ve been able to build a platform that effectively serves the two types of user. The development process involved a level of conceptual reworking to ensure the product satisfied the niche requirements of its user base - with ongoing optimizations and plenty of communication resulting in a platform that will support and enhance a highly-regarded Norwegian industry. Moreover, in building both a forum for dentists as well as a listing platform for training providers, ViDent will be able to diversify its business model as the product functionality evolves.
