"<i>Figure 1 currently offers its app free and has not yet generated revenue. However, Mr. Chabra believes, “If they continue to grow at the [current] pace, they will have lots of monetization options in the near future,” thanks to their reach and engagement with the world’s 30 million medical professionals, and medical students and dentists too.<p>In the U.S., health-care and pharmaceutical companies will spend $1.18 billion on digital advertising this year, according to eMarketer research.</i>"<p>I'm not sure why they're even thinking of advertising as a revenue model. Unlike Instagram, the number of people who will look at any given image is very small. Also, it wouldn't inspire patients' confidence to see ads plastered all over a screen in their doctors' offices; it just doesn't look professional. (Nor would an ad-supported service seem professional to the doctors who use it.) It makes much more sense to charge for subscriptions to this service. Hospitals or large practices could get volume discounts.