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Why every doctor
should have their own website |
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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
? Firstly, your website lets you provide value-added
services for your existing and new patients, by
providing details as to the timings of the clinic
and how to get to the clinic. It also 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.
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 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. In fact, by encouraging
doctors to put up their own websites, the Indian
Health Ministry can help doctors 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 !
Putting up a website has become very easy , and
your first website can be hosted free at www.goodhealthnyou.com
- you just need to fill up the form online at the
website.
If you get more ambitious, you can register your
own website address
(for example , www.DrMalpani.com),
and this costs only Rs 2000 for 2 years.
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.
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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