I met a doctor socially the other day, and we had a very interesting conversation about his practice. He has published a website with the help of Plus91 Technology’s Website For Doctor's initiative , and we were discussing the merits of a doctor using the Internet for reaching out to patients.
His first worry was: doesn't this amount to advertising? Because a website is personal digital real estate, he felt this was fine, but was very uncomfortable about using social media to reach out, because he felt this was unethical. I agree that flagrantly advertising and singing praises about yourself may be unethical, but not informing people about your services is also downright unethical ! Imagine a poor patient with a brain tumour who is forced to travel miles in order to talk to a good neurologist , just because the neurologist in his neighborhood doesn't bother to let anyone know about what he does!
Doctors in India are in short supply – don’t they have a responsibility and duty to let people know about their expertise, so that it can be used more efficiently ?
We then started talking about how his website has made a difference to his practice.
a. He now could interact with his patient via the site
b. He could easily give directions to his clinics and his timings by directing people to the site , which had all the information patients needed, including a google map. This saved his patients a lot of time and energy – and his staff did not have to keep on repeating the same directions to all his new patients !
c. The website did convey that he is a serious up-to-date professional, and his patients appreciates this.
Did it get him new patients? The ability of a website to do this depends directly on the web traffic coming to the site, and because his site was fairly new, the numbers were still small, so it was hard to say if this has had a significant impact. If he promotes his website effectively, it is common sense that it is bound to help him attract new patients ! It’s always hard to judge the return on investment ( ROI) on a website , since it takes time for a website to grow ! It needs to be nurtured carefully – and doctors who do this will find this a very cost effective option ! Even one new patient can help him to recover the cost of a year’s hosting ! However, he is reluctant to spend the money to promote his website ( using a search engine optimisation – SEO - firm) , so it’s possible that his website may not help him to grow his practice, making this a self-fulfilling prophecy !
His skepticism arose from the fact that in his experience, when patients search for a doctor, they usually ask a friend or a family member for a recommendation or a referral. Patients may do research online to find out more about the doctor, but not many patients in India today use the internet as a tool to find a doctor. , However , as time goes by, this is likely to change quickly, because many people change cities when they switch jobs; and few have a family physician they can trust. It’s becoming increasingly common for urban Indian patients to use the internet to select a medical specialist to help them get the best medical care.
Social media has a very important role to play, because it is the digital version of “word of mouth” marketing. Let’s take a doctor who specializes in arthroscopic knee surgery. If all his colleagues on twitter, facebook and orkut feeds know about this, they can create a lot of buzz for him. Anytime someone asks these people about knee surgery , they will be sure to say, “Hey , why don't you go in for mini incision surgery and avoid the big scar ? I know a guy who does this and his website is …..”. Here your website becomes a tool which allows others to refer their friends to you easily. If you have videos on your website displaying your surgical skills, as well as patient testimonials, this allows you to build your prospective patient’s confidence in your expertise, and helps to enhance your credibility !
Showing posts with label doctor websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctor websites. Show all posts
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Website for Doctors – Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Website for Doctors went live in January 2010, it’s been about 5 months since then and the progress has been fabulous. Some feedback, knowledge, learning and more importantly positive reviews have been taken back in kind from the project. The experience has been wonderful as a lot of doctors and observers commended us on not only the initiative, which serves all stake holders but the quality of work due to the focus shown.
Below is a point wise analysis of the experience:
a. Many doctors show interest in getting a website, but very few actually end up coming through. This is not due to cost but mainly due to the work involved on their side. I think they do not find time or are just plain lazy to send in the information for the site. Also some think of it like a tattoo which once up might define them hence are afraid to put it up unless it’s absolutely perfect so don’t go through with it.
We counter this, by following up with the doctors on a regular basis. Emails, SMS, Calls, the avenues are many, the idea is to not let them slip away once they have the interest. Many have come back to us after 2, 3 months and gone through with the website.
b. Doctors come in different makes, we have the very enthusiastic kind, who send lots of data and information and follow up each day, these are fun to work with, but can take away some of the productivity. We have the uninterested kind, who seem to have decided to make the website as an afterthought and have to be followed up constantly to send data and take decisions, here the site may take long to get done. Similar to the previous kind are the doctors who want the site, but are too busy to make decisions and send in information. Lastly, we have the doctors who send information on time, take decisions quickly and appreciate the effort, and just like good scotch are rare
c. Few things we noticed that doctors liked were: a. Choice of changing a selected template with some of their own images, b. wanting to display their attachments and timings on the home page, c. Reluctance to elaborate on the kind of work, specialized treatments they provide (personal insight: think they don’t what really to write), d. They love to put up images (a good thing!), e. they definitely need help in deciding a URL, some choose very complicated ones trying to fit all that they do in it, not really useful for SEO.
d. Bottlenecks at W4D: a. Information flow: Doctors don’t send required data on time or take decisions on time delaying the process, which ideally can be completed in less than 2 days for a basic site. b. Sending incorrect information is also high on the list, with numerous errors and mistakes, either it has to be sent back, or time spent on correcting it if it need be. c. Payments: Generally we do not publish the site unless the complete payment is made, hence when doctors’ delay payments we hold the work or do not make the site live, this is a rare case but it does happen. d. Too many changes or close inspection: doctors some times are over critical of their site, I guess from nature of the work they do. This can delay going live which is from the websites need point of view the most important part. I say get it ready, put it up and improve with feedback and time.
So if any of you doctors do want a website, go to www.websitefordoctors.in and send us a request. It takes 3 simple steps and 4 days to have your site up and running. Provided you follow the rules stated above. I think the more doctors are aware of this avenue the more they will promote it amongst their community. You have 3 flexible plans to choose from in terms of cost, complexity and features, so take a decision and take the plunge.
Some stats from our site: we receive nowadays on average 2 website request a day! We have completed over 30 live sites and 15 micro-sites. For some of the more apt key words we are already on the first page. And as for our work check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAxQ9aW4MzA
What’s been worked on for the future?
• A do it yourself content manager which will let you add information yourself to your site,
• Integration with Plus91 EMR solutions for Online EMR access and pre-visit information capture from patient
• New cool templates on more specialties
• New content which can now be sourced by you on various topics for the site, so no running around
• Patient education videos from PEAS
Below is a point wise analysis of the experience:
a. Many doctors show interest in getting a website, but very few actually end up coming through. This is not due to cost but mainly due to the work involved on their side. I think they do not find time or are just plain lazy to send in the information for the site. Also some think of it like a tattoo which once up might define them hence are afraid to put it up unless it’s absolutely perfect so don’t go through with it.
We counter this, by following up with the doctors on a regular basis. Emails, SMS, Calls, the avenues are many, the idea is to not let them slip away once they have the interest. Many have come back to us after 2, 3 months and gone through with the website.
b. Doctors come in different makes, we have the very enthusiastic kind, who send lots of data and information and follow up each day, these are fun to work with, but can take away some of the productivity. We have the uninterested kind, who seem to have decided to make the website as an afterthought and have to be followed up constantly to send data and take decisions, here the site may take long to get done. Similar to the previous kind are the doctors who want the site, but are too busy to make decisions and send in information. Lastly, we have the doctors who send information on time, take decisions quickly and appreciate the effort, and just like good scotch are rare
c. Few things we noticed that doctors liked were: a. Choice of changing a selected template with some of their own images, b. wanting to display their attachments and timings on the home page, c. Reluctance to elaborate on the kind of work, specialized treatments they provide (personal insight: think they don’t what really to write), d. They love to put up images (a good thing!), e. they definitely need help in deciding a URL, some choose very complicated ones trying to fit all that they do in it, not really useful for SEO.
d. Bottlenecks at W4D: a. Information flow: Doctors don’t send required data on time or take decisions on time delaying the process, which ideally can be completed in less than 2 days for a basic site. b. Sending incorrect information is also high on the list, with numerous errors and mistakes, either it has to be sent back, or time spent on correcting it if it need be. c. Payments: Generally we do not publish the site unless the complete payment is made, hence when doctors’ delay payments we hold the work or do not make the site live, this is a rare case but it does happen. d. Too many changes or close inspection: doctors some times are over critical of their site, I guess from nature of the work they do. This can delay going live which is from the websites need point of view the most important part. I say get it ready, put it up and improve with feedback and time.
So if any of you doctors do want a website, go to www.websitefordoctors.in and send us a request. It takes 3 simple steps and 4 days to have your site up and running. Provided you follow the rules stated above. I think the more doctors are aware of this avenue the more they will promote it amongst their community. You have 3 flexible plans to choose from in terms of cost, complexity and features, so take a decision and take the plunge.
Some stats from our site: we receive nowadays on average 2 website request a day! We have completed over 30 live sites and 15 micro-sites. For some of the more apt key words we are already on the first page. And as for our work check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAxQ9aW4MzA
What’s been worked on for the future?
• A do it yourself content manager which will let you add information yourself to your site,
• Integration with Plus91 EMR solutions for Online EMR access and pre-visit information capture from patient
• New cool templates on more specialties
• New content which can now be sourced by you on various topics for the site, so no running around
• Patient education videos from PEAS
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