This week Jeff Tangney, co-founder of one of the (if not the) most popular smartphone medical apps, Epocrates, launched a new mobile-centric service for physicians called Doximity. The service is a physician's private network (like Sermo?) and iPhone app designed to help physicians save time. (Always a good pitch for that group.)

Doxmity aims to be the gold standard national directory of physicians, health professionals, hospitals, nursing homes, imaging groups and labs. It also offers search functions for finding medical school classmates or other colleagues for consultations: Doximity provided "psychiatrist in Tampa who speaks Spanish" as an example.

Doximity looks to distinguish itself from Sermo, perhaps the best known online social network for physicians, by being a real-time professional network and not an anonymous networking site. Of course, Doximity also views its mobile-centered design as key, too.

Since Epocrates recently filed its initial public offering plans, the subsequent startups coming from Epocrates alums like Tangney is an important space to watch. Tangney was former President & COO of Epocrates, and Doximity's founding team also includes: Dr. Elise Singer, Dr. Marc Lawrence, Shari Buck, Mark Pagura, and Al Fontes. Dr. Richard Fiedotin and Dr. Tom Lee, who co-founded Epocrates with Tangney, are advisors and contributors to Doximity, according to the company.

And, oh yeah: "Doximity"? It's a play on "proximity for doctors".

For more, check out the video demo of the app, below: