Social networking has been popularized by teens and geeks on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Many more niche social networking sites have come along and more recently business focused social networks have emerged. Professionals turn to sites like LindedIn and Jobster to share and find career, recruiting, and industry information.

Sermo provides a social network for physicians that not only provides a networking tools but allows them to collaborate and apply that collective knowledge to achieve better outcomes for their patients. Additionally it provide free access for members to news from medical journals.

Sermo authenticates each physician when they register and then re-validates with every sign in. This technology is the key to strictly maintaining a community exclusively for physicians and dramatically improving patient care.

The site, founded by Daniel Palestrant while he was a surgical resident in Boston and launched last year, isn’t cluttered with advertising – revenue comes from charging outside businesses access to data and member discussions. This can provide valuable insight to investment managers, pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare focused businesses.

Sermo currently has almost 30,000 members and just closed a $27 million Series C round of funding from two new investors for a total of 39.5 million in venture capital to date. Earlier this month, Sermo executives revealed the company had signed an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health to access Sermo’s website. In May, Sermo signed a multiyear, strategic partnership agreement with the American Medical Association.

This business appears to be poised for major success. Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists, what other professional social networks are thriving? Ideas for next big social networking concept?