The Government's plans to computerise the NHS may still be mired in controversy, but in the meantime, doctors and other health professionals seem to be embracing new technology with enthusiasm.

Oxford kidney specialist Neil Bacon founded doctors.net.uk in 1998, at the height of the dotcom boom. As one of the Internet's first interactive communities, it was an almost instant success.

Used by 40,000 doctors every day, the website pioneered a new way of financing Internet companies.

Although it is funded by pharmaceutical companies, doctors.net is run and controlled by doctors themselves, and other people can only contact them with their permission.

Peter Ward, who was part of the founding team, is well aware of the difficult relationship between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.

He said: "If we had covered doctors.net in advertising, the doctors would have left. We had to be far more sophisticated than that."

Mr Ward and colleague Rupert Potter could see the potential for using the model in the wider healthcare industry. Three years ago they left doctors.net, which is based at Milton Park, near Didcot, to set up a new company, Incuna.

He said: "The appetite for technologies in healthcare and how to use social media is unstoppable. But for a long time, people used other websites to engage with those they wanted to speak to, whether it was doctors, scientists or patients. We show them that you don't have to use other websites. You can build your own and people will come."

Incuna's speciality is 'online communities' and its reach is global.

In one project, run by Dr Trudie Lang of Oxford University's Centre for Tropical Medicine, a web-based platform (www.globalhealthtrials.org) provides resources, guidance, networking and e-learning on clinical trials, allowing research staff to monitor each other’s studies.

It is funded directly by grants from the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to support for researchers based in developing countries.

A second project is run by the Ridgeway Partnership, which provides services for people with learning disabilities.

Incuna's third revenue stream is the pharmaceutical industry, which funds website forums for very specialised areas of healthcare, on the basis that no product is promoted. So what do clients get for their money?

"It's all about relationship building," said Mr Ward.

He added specialist medical journals have tried to provide forums but without success.

"They haven't got the expertise to build this type of community," he said.

Production director Cyan Collier said: "The pharmaceutical industry don't really like the way that they are being interacted with.

“Our solution is very much about doctors taking control of it and giving permission for the company to contact them with limited, specialist information, such as clinical trials, rather than the scatter-gun approach that has been used in the past."

Mr Potter said: "The pharmaceutical companies fund it, but from an editorial perspective it is very much run by the doctors.

“There is an editorial panel of doctors, as well as someone from Incuna to talk about the functionality. The community has ownership.

“It's just being funded by a pharmaceutical company, who will get permission to contact them about clinical trials or sponsorship, or information that is relevant to that doctor.

“It is very tailored and very much based on the community owning it and feeling that it's theirs."

Mr Ward said: "Over the years, the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry have interacted with health professionals in a very traditional way. We are revolutionising the way they think, allowing health care professionals to tell these groups what they want.

"The industry no longer wants to be pitching itself and we put health care professionals and patients at the centre of things."

Incuna's growth so far has been phenomenal. Started two years ago at the height of the recession by five people, it has increased its turnover from £200,000 to £1.7m and now employs 25 staff, having moved from a start-up unit in Cave Street, St Clements, to new offices in Middle Way, Summertown.

It has no debt, having been started with the founders' money, and has yet more ambitious expansion plans, with a new office in Singapore.

One of its latest products is Epatients, which allows patients to input information about themselves to receive tailored advice about their condition, plus case studies that are relevant to them.

Mr Ward believes the idea chimes with the Conservatives' pledge to put patients at the centre of healthcare.

"If you have rheumatoid arthritis and you are 60, you are interested in different things than a young mother with children.

Epatient will give you advice about lifestyle and diet. Because you have input your postcode, it can tell you where to find health activities in your own area.

"It can link into Facebook and Twitter, and allows patients to tailor it to the way they would like to be reminded about when to take medication — it can send an e-mail, text message, or a phone call.

It can trace adherence because patients can input when they have taken their pill, and see how many doses are left. Then the pharmacy could deliver the drug, and we can send a reminder of a GP appointment.

"It's the last bit to the jigsaw," said Mr Ward.