This app is the medical world's secret (gory) Instagram.

Image: Figure 1. Disclaimer: This post contains some confronting images, proceed with caution.

When doctors come across a never-before-seen illness or injury, sharing it with colleagues can help the issue to be treated effectively in future.

A medical-professionals only app, called Figure 1, allows doctors to do just that. It’s been touted as “medicine’s answer to Instagram”, but instead of selfies and pictures of green smoothies, gnawed off toes and uniquely conjoined twins abound.

“You get close ups of cuts, breaks, rashes,” explains Reply All podcast host PJ Vogt.

When reading out one of the posts shared on Figure 1, Vogt recited: “‘Male diabetic patient that was asleep in his home and woke up to his toe being eaten by a rat. The patient did not feel it at first so the rat got most of his toe’.”

Ouch. And it only gets more gory, with pictures of strange wart-like growths on a woman’s shoulders, rashes that make you subconsciously reach to scratch your own skin and injuries that look like opened tennis balls with “viscera inside it”.

It’s enough to send anyone’s gag reflex into overdrive, and it has some concerned that the app is fast becoming less "educational" and more "freak show".

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The Awl’s John Herman noticed that rather than displays of genuine interest, doctor’s were posting comments that could be, well, a little unprofessional, alongside the images.

“The discussions are inflected with internet-speak—LOLs and ROFLs under funny-looking kidney stones—and the doctors make jokes,” Herman explains.

“I also wouldn’t take it for granted that patients understand exactly what getting posted on Figure 1 looks like in practice. The tone is jarring. Not cruel, exactly, just sort of unfeeling. Certainly not patient-facing.”

The app, launched in Canada in 2013, has a clear set of rules for doctors wanting to post pictures.

The company states: “Before sharing online, protect your patients’ privacy by removing their  identifying information. On Figure 1, we ask you to remove 18 identifiers (which have been drawn from HIPAA) and provide you with the tools to do so. Use these tools to keep your patients’ identities safe.” (Post continues after this gallery. Warning: gore ahead)

Dr Ruth Hand, a General Practitioner at Carn Brae Medical Clinic in Victoria, agrees that the patient’s privacy is the most important factor in posting to the app.

“It’s not a problem really as long as the patients aren’t being identified, or as long as the patients have given very clear permission for their cases to be shared. It helps you to learn and it does expand collective knowledge,” she explained.

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With a recent RMIT University study finding that up to 85 per cent of doctors use their smartphones at work, some are concerned that those in the medical profession are blurring the lines of consent in order to be able to post their gory findings onto Figure 1.

The Awl reports that some images are posted with captions like, “from a few months ago” that clearly indicate consent may not have occurred.

Despite the app claiming to be for medical professionals only, the images can be accessed easily by anyone with an internet connection. Those with access to the app can also choose to share pictures on Facebook, Twitter, email and via messages.

Not so private, right? And probably not something the people consenting thought of at the time.

Do you think this app is doing enough ensure privacy of patients?