Bob on Medical Device Software

It seems like a great concept (to me anyway). Grow a community of like-minded Healthcare IT geeks that want to participate in an on-line Q&A site which rewards contribution and facilitates constructive dialog. As of today, it appears unlikely this will happen anytime soon.

Even after being endorsed on HISTalk News 6/25/10 less than 900 people have visited the site.

The attraction that programmers have for Stack Overflow just doesn't translate for this group of professionals. I suppose it's the nature of the business.

1. Programming, like Food and Cooking, have a much larger audience. Since only a small percentage of the interested population will actively participate or become community leaders, the numbers game is critical.
2. Even though Healthcare IT seems like a broad topic, the number of non-subjective questions that could be asked is probably fairly limited.  The .NET Framework and bread recipes have tons of facts.
3. Maybe HIT experts are a shy bunch?  The activity level also seems surprising low on Chris Paton's Health Informatics Forum site which has over 4000 members.

Anyway, it's really too bad there isn't a way for a site like this to gain traction. It would be a valuable HIT resource if it could get off the ground.