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16-Www.doctor.com
- setting up your virtual clinic on the internet
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"I used to
think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What
I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years
away. And what I thought was ten years away... it
was already here. I just wasn't aware of it yet."
- Bruce Sterling.
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In the past, getting on the Net meant learning how to surf
the Web, and having your own email address was considered
to be a status symbol ! However, today, this is no longer
enough – you need to have your own Website ! This rapid
pace of change is symbolic of how quickly things are changing
in today’s world – and doctors who are not proactive
are likely to get left behind!
You are a busy doctor, so why should you take the time and
trouble of setting up your own website ? Every good doctor
knows that keeping your patients happy and providing excellent
patient care is key to success. Your website lets you provide
value-added services for your patients, by providing details
as to the timings of the clinic ; the specialized services
you offer; answers to commonly asked questions; and post-procedure
instructions as well as directions as to how to get to the
clinic. This means you can use your website to serve your
patients round the clock without requiring them to call or
visit, making your website a valuable support/contact center.
Your website allows you to answer routine patient’s
queries by email. Patients are thirsty for information
about their illness, and many will use the Net to
find information. However, most patients would much
rather get information from their own doctor , and
if you provide this information on your website,
your patients know they can trust it. Your website
will also save you a lot of time ! Most doctors
have now started seeing patients coming with Net
printouts of pages and pages of unreliable and irrelevant
information. If you put up your own website, you
can guide your patients to reliable sources of information
– thus saving your patients the frustration
of wading through pages of garbage and misinformation
! Remember that Indian patients want information
about diseases common in India – so they want
information on malaria rather than cystic fibrosis.
By providing this information, you establish yourself
as a credible expert. You can “refer”
patients to your website at the end of the consultation,
so they can educate themselves . Patients appreciate
this – and word of mouth will help you get
more patients.
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Your website can help you to attract new patients . Indian
medical care is very cost-effective, and a website is very
valuable for informing NRIs of your medical expertise. Soon,
it will become as routine for patients in India to do “
research “ about their doctors, as it is in USA, and
your website can help patients to find you ! At our website
at http://www.DrMalpani.com
- we answer over 10 queries a day, as a result of which we
get direct patient referrals from all over the world ! Remember
that internet positive patients may be slightly different
from your average patient ! They are well-informed, used to
getting second opinions, and can be quite demanding. Most
are affluent, and know exactly what they want !
Your website is an excellent form of continuing medical education
for yourself. Because you need to update your website all
the time, not only do you need to source the latest medical
information, you also need to keep upto date with web technology
!
However, website benefits are not restricted to practise promotion
only. We put up a new website at www.TheBestMedicalCare.com
to publicise our book, How to Get the Best Medical Care –
A Guide for the Intelligent Patient. We now get orders from
all over the world – and get paid in US dollars too
for this !
Our first website, www.healthlibrary.com
is a purely educational site, and by putting up over 20 full-text
books on ayurveda and yoga online in our reading room, we
are helping to promote Indian healing systems internationally.
Patients all over the world are very interested in alternative
medicine , and websites can allow Indian doctors to treat
patients from all over the globe.
Putting up a website has become very easy , and
many companies provide free webhosting. However,
it’s well worth spending about Rs 10000, to
get your own domain name and a commercial webhost.
This lets your patients know that you are professional
and serious about the services you offer.
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You need to have realistic expectations of what your website
can do for you ! In India, the number of Internet users is
not yet as high as in the USA, so don’t expect patients
to start pouring in the day your website goes live ! Just
having a website is not enough – remember that there
are over a million websites out there ! You need to promote
your website actively. Online promotion usually means registering
the site with all the relevant search engines, so people can
“find” you. Offline promotion is even more important,
and you need to tell everybody about it! Print the website
address ( URL ) on your business cards and your stationery
– and display it in your waiting room . Encourage patients
to use your website – most will be happy to follow their
doctor’s orders ! And if your website has content which
is useful to them, and which is updated on a regular basis
so it is fresh and new, many will happily visit it regularly
– and even refer many of their friends to your site
as well .
You can also design a monthy ezine, to keep patients coming
back to your site. Your staff should constantly be on the
lookout for interesting pieces for the next month’s
issue. This creates a direct link to your web site, but does
require commitment to keep the content fresh.
Are there are any downsides? The major one for doctors in
the US is that of legal liabilities. Protecting patient privacy
and confidentiality is a major concern, and while
this is still not an issue in India as yet, it is likely to
become important as the world shrinks even further.
It is true that putting up a website – and
updating it - can be time consuming , and you might
want to consider outsourcing it. Your website is
an image of your clinic – make sure you do
a professional job! Typing errors, poor grammar
and deadlinks all create a poor impression. Also,
make sure you reply promptly to queries and emails!
It’s a good idea to check out competing websites,
so you can see what they are doing. This can also
provide you with an incentive to upgrade your own
services. Your website can help to keep you on your
toes – both professionally, because you need
to update your knowledge to provide fresh content
for your website and to answer queries received
by email from patients in all parts of the world;
and technologically, because you will need to keep
abreast of computer and internet technology.
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The Indian government has started encouraging doctors and
hospitals to export their services, and medical services can
be a major area of foreign exchange revenue for the future
. By encouraging doctors and clinics to put up their own websites,
the Indian Health Ministry can help the Indian medical industry
to export their specialized medical services and knowledge
– without contributing to brain drain! This can be a
valuable source of foreign exchange for the country, and our
hospitals can be actively promoted as medical centers of excellence.
Indian doctors have the expertise – we just need the
infrastructure and the promotion !
Some doctors are worried that having their own website may
be misconstrued as a form of advertising. However, the internet
is a very valuable means of educating patients, and doctors
need to be in the forefront of providing reliable information
to their patients. After all, if we don’t take responsibility
for educating patients, then who will ?
The future of medical care is e-healthcare, with
the promise of online medical records, online pharmacies,
telemedicine, patient education, and an ever-expanding
list of exciting opportunities. The opportunity
to help our patients navigate the wealth of information
on the World Wide Web and better educate themselves
is now in our hands. We owe it to ourselves and
our patients to meet the challenge that lies before
us all !
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