Why it is important to have a website now verses later

When we are searching online, we will discover limitless amounts of details, about everything, and all at our convenience. The internet is the biggest source of information in the world because anyone can get the required details on there. And for this all we need is a website and a web hosting company. Many individuals think that getting their web page on the internet is an expensive project, luckily though, this need not actually be true; if we look for the right web variety, the advantages of having a website will definitely over-shadow the costs.

There are many different methods to advantage from having a website, whether it is for individual gain, or company success. Those who have their own individual sites generally using them to further an interest or a hobby; having a website is a great way to discuss and exchange information with others. Companies on the other hand use a web page to advertise and industry their items or solutions, while decreasing on such costs as delivery, couriers and advertising, etc.

These are but a few key advantages of having a website:

1.       Companies can now significantly increase their marketplaces, no need to limit the focus to only the local landscape, but by using the internet, businesses can project into worldwide and local marketplaces, with less effort. This dynamically changes the characteristics and the marketing actions of some businesses, possibly motivating the company to flourish the variety of its items or solutions, to meet these new marketplaces. Web sites, in their characteristics, allow countless numbers and maybe a large number of items to be on view 24/7; thus motivating broader watching, and prolonged dealing time.

2.       With the independence of being able to post our details on our web page, hence on the internet, whenever they want of the day; available details of all modifications is improving at a large amount. The independence to surf anywhere and communicate with anyone is enough to entice the tiniest of companies and the most introverted of individuals to get on the Net; hence Net customers are improving in numbers, at an escalating amount, roughly 50,000 per day.

3.       Net companies extremely aware of how they can profit by being on the Internet; they can sell their product or solutions without the large costs, and setbacks of publishing, posting and submission. E-industry features can be integrated into the web page, changing 2D screen graphics into user sensitive designs; for example, customers can order their items or solutions online, significantly decreasing management costs. Decrease of phone calling to potential customers; follow ups by email; updates electronically made, marketed by e-mail or down-loadable from the web page, with loss of submission costs; less marketing material sent out, printed and wasted; prolonged dealing time without a human presence; are just a few methods to cut costs.

The current viewpoint is that any company not on the internet now or in the near future is not only losing out on the benefits of this new and vivid industry, but is including itself to the list of "the forgotten". Thus we should not spend our energy and effort damaging our head thinking what the internet can do to advantage our company, we will be left behind; instead, think about how we can take benefit of this new and cheap form of industry attention. We can always look for a web developer, get a quotation, and tell them what we need.

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What should you ask your website hosting provider?

To put a web site online, one must go through a web coordinator or a web hosting provider. The web site designer/developer will publish his or her design to a web hosting solution according to a set of recommendations and guidelines(typically provided by the practice), and also based on the type of development language the website developer has used. 

Many website hosting providers provide resources to help their customers not only simplify the process of posting information to a web site, but even provide applications to help develop websites easily.

Almost anyone can develop and publish a website today, but not everyone can setup a professional, feature rich website and then publish it securely such that its protected against various online attacks. Some understanding is thus essential before hiring a web hosting provider. When picking a web hosting provider, it is essential to keep your individual or business objectives in thoughts. 

If it's your own personal website, you might not mind it if the web hosting provider places a banner with a 3rd party promotion on it.  However, if it's an organization site you're planning; you may not want your web hosting provider to promote other organizations on your site. Many web hosting services provide free web servers if the site owners permit to place promotions on it or they charge a small fee to keep it clear of such advertisements. If you are looking to hire a web host kept the following points in mind:

1. Find out whether the provider is providing end-to- end Managed Solutions. Most webhost alternatives provides little or no support, and simply expect you to already have someone on them to deal with your specialized needs.  A managed web hosting provider should handle support for everything which range from getting a CGI script set up, to security protection of your e-commerce site. It is worthwhile paying the extra dollars for managed hosting.

2. Find out whether the website hoster provides you with the newest protected application or simply installs the standard base applications from an old CD. The provider must provide you with the latest , most secure and up-to-date web host server applications. Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search sites actually rate your site based on the application versions you use, and can considerably reduce your page rank score if you are using older and less protected application commonly provided by some website hosts.

3. A good website hosting firm should provide professional support 24 hours a day. There is nothing more painful than having to pay for support; even more than what you have to pay for the solution. And worse if you realize that you are having a conversation with someone located at a distance who scarcely speaks your language. Most webhost alternatives are busy outsourcing their support offshore. Ideally, a fast and friendly regional professional support should be available 24 hours-a-day, 7-days a week with provision for toll-free phone support as well as online live help chat sessions.

4. A webhost organization should reveal to a client their network features and capacity. Many web coordinators are simply resellers of another organization, so when you ask them to reveal their features, you can quickly figure out if you are interacting with a middleman or an efficient organization with their own features.

5. A webhost organization should have internet demonstrations and certification of what they offer. You MUST take demonstration tours of the website host's server user interface prior to purchase.

6. Website hosting organizations should have experienced in- house staff. There is no substitution for an excellent professional team when interacting in a technically-oriented organization place and the availability of an in-house market veteran team to deal with all your needs.

7. Look for a provider with realistic prices. Often, the most improbable costs come from the smallest of alternatives managing out of a single location. In reality, using a substandard website host will not conserve your funds at all. You will end up paying a lot more due to down times, back and forth discussions and unhappy visitors.

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Understanding Search Engines to Improve Your Searches

A larger number of physicians are now relying on Google to help them find information sources to help them diagnose or treat their most difficult cases. In this article we explain how to make online searches more effective by writing better search queried, thus reducing the time it will take to find articles, information sources and websites relevant to what you are looking for.

Firstly let’s understand what a search engine is and how it works. A search engine is a system that searches the Internet. Search Engines help users sort through the huge amounts of information on the Internet to find what they are looking for. A user type-in words or phrases also called a “search query”, and the search engine looks for those words or phrases in Web sites and returns a listing of links to relevant pages as a result.

One of the challenges which most people face when using search engines is that a large number of results in response to a search query are unrelated to what the user is intending to research. There are, however, some ways to make searching more effective.

Try to meet the search engine halfway by refining your search before you begin.

It is important before starting a search to spare a thought in your mind over what sort of information you want. Split your search topic into key concepts and let each be a search phrase. Enter the smallest possible subset that describes what you want. The words you choose will determine the information you find. Try to use words that are specific and describe what you are looking for in unique ways.

Example: If you want to find articles on “Acute Pain in the Chest “, don't enter the keyword "articles". See what more can you do with the keyword "Pain in Chest." 

A search for Articles on Acute Pain in the Chest can be carried out using the search phrase:

“Articles on Acute Pain in the Chest”

But the following search result will actually turn out to be better

“Acute Pain in the Chest”

Anticipate the answers

Before searching, try to imagine what the ideal page you would like to access would look like. Think about the words the articles heading would contain. Think about what words which would be contained in the first couple of sentences of the article that you would consider useful. Use those words, or that phrase, when you enter your query.

Keeping this in mind, if you can rewrite the previously entered search query to something which contains a part of the what the final page would contain, you are bound to get even more accurate and thus more meaningful results. 

A medical article on such a topic must contain the words cardiac, heart.

So refine your query still, search for Articles on Acute Pain in the Chest, using the search phrase:

Acute Pain in the Chest cardiac heart

Tip: Adding some words which should be expected to be found in the ideal content to your search phrase will help the search engine provide more relevant results.

Use the available search refining options

Search engines in addition to basic keyword searches allow you to refine your searches using advanced techniques.

These techniques are actually quite simple. Let us look at these below

USING BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Search engines allow the use of Boolean Operators to refine a search. Here the search Query is made up of keywords connected by OR, AND or NOT. You can search more effectively by using these connecting words which are supported but most online databases and search engines.

Using AND will retrieve all records containing both words on either side of AND

E.g Diabetes AND Naturopathy

This will retrieve all records containing the words Diabetes and also the word Naturopathy

Using OR will retrieve all records containing either or both words on either side of OR

Cancer OR Malignancy

This will retrieve all records containing the words Cancer and also the records containing the word Malignancy

Using NOT will retrieve all records containing the left word/phrase and Not containing the words/phrase on the right side of NOT

For e.g. If you want to find out about Alzheimer's care and community resources, you want to filter out the results which will come for Alzheimer's and be about the symptoms and prognosis. To obtain results only pertaining to support and community groups and not detailing the symptom the search query can read

"Alzheimer's" AND "support groups" AND "resources" AND NOT "symptoms."

IMPLIED BOOLEAN

In many search engines, the plus and minus symbols can be used as alternatives to full Boolean AND and AND NOT. The plus sign (+) is the equivalent of AND, and the minus sign (-) is the equivalent of AND NOT. There is no space between the plus or minus sign and the keyword.

For e.g.

If a specific term must exist in your search result, use the + symbol before the term in your search query

+ Doctors + Chicago

This will return all links with both Doctors and Chicago on the page.

If you want to exclude a term from your search results use the – symbol before the term in your search query

+Doctors +USA –Chicago

This will return all links with Doctors and USA but not Chicago.

PHRASE SEARCHING

Phrase searching is a powerful search technique for significantly narrowing your search results. If you want to perform a more specific search place quotation marks around it and search the phrase instead of the individual words. This tells the search engine to only retrieve documents in which those words appear side-by-side.

For e.g.: If we are searching for nursing schools in chicago and we use the search query

“Chicago nursing schools”

This will retrieve pages with the words in the exact order as specified within the double quotes.

FILETYPE SEARCH

File type searches empower you to search for information in the file formats that you desire. In case you are looking for powerpoint presentations on DNA Sequencing, the following search query will narrow the searches down to the ones which are available as power point presentations

filetype:ppt +DNA +Sequencing

URL SEARCH

The Url search limits the results to pages where the keyword appears in the website address. A Url search can narrow very broad results to web pages devoted to the keyword topic.

For e.g. Searching for asthama related pages from the Medlineplus database can be carried out as follows

url:"http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/" AND asthama

WILDCARDS

Wildcards such as * which refer to anything can be used to add flexibility to searches.

For e.g in case the search query is

(hiv or aids) and pregnan*

The search engine will Use the * to mean anything . Thus the results will contain both tose links which contain the keyword pregnant as well as those links which contain the keyword pregnancy

Take advantage of “Find Similar Sites”

A useful option that many search engine sites are now offering is that one can "find similar sites," to the ones that come up in a search result listing. Essentially what the search engine is offering is a way to help the search engine move in the right direction.

Summarizing:

• Try to meet the search engine halfway by refining your search before you begin.
• Adding some words which should be expected to be found in the ideal content to your search phrase will help the search engine provide more relevant results.
• Use the available search refining options.
• Use Boolean Searches
• Use Phrases to create more specific search queries
• Use Wildcards to add flexibility to your searches
• Use File type searches to narrow your search to the file formats that you desire
• Use Unique Terms When Possible to Retrieve More Specific Results
• Take advantage of “Find Similar Sites”

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Searching Online for Health Information

Many Physicians nowadays are relying on Google to help them find information sources which help them diagnose or treat their most difficult cases. Its no surprise then that a large number of physicians feel that regularly accessing the Internet has helped improve their practice as well as patient care.

A study by Google released in November 2009, found that 86% of physicians use the Internet to gather health, medical or prescription drug information, and 71% said they start with a search engine. It further showed that 57% use search terms related to conditions, 36% use terms related to treatments and trials, and 33% look for branded medication.

A more recent survey by Wolters Kluwer Health found that two-thirds of physicians use Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo to look for information related to the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

In this article we look at ways to locate Quality Health Information Online. We will look at the popular search engines and then list popular sites catering to different categories of Health Information.  

Search Engines:

A search engine is a system that searches the Web. Search Engines help users sort through the huge amounts of information on the Web to find what they are looking for. Users type-in words or phrases, and the search engine looks for those words or phrases in Web sites.

A broad search engine is not recommended to locate health information, but it is helpful to find specific websites which contain quality health information. Also, google and other search engines serve as a great starting point in case you forget the URL of a previously visited website.

1. Google  http://www.google.com/
2. Bing http://www.bing.com
3. Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com
4. Search within HonCode Certified Websites: http://www.hon.ch/HONsearch/Pro/hunt.html

Patient Health Information Sites:

Searching medical literature is important to get information on clinical terms, symptoms and treatment options. Patients frequently use websites to locate health information. This is a cause of concern for many physicians as a misinformed patient may end up being their biggest woe. 

As such it is important that physicians guide them in the direction of Websites with High quality and authentic information.  Here is a small list of such websites.

1. MedlinePlus http://medlineplus.gov/
2. Merck Manual: Home Edition for Patients http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/index.html
3. Merck Manual: Online Medical Library for Professionals http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/index.html
4. MedicineNet http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/hp.asp
5. Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.com/health-information/
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/

Sites Specifically tailored to Medical Students

1. Student Doctor Network: http://studentdoctor.net/
2. E-Meducation http://www.e-meducation.org/

Sites which explain Medical Terms:

1. MedTerms: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp
2. MedicalLexicon : http://www.medilexicon.com/

Websites which provide Information related to Medications:

The following websites contain information about  prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines which includes side effects, common dosages, drug-drug interactions, special precautions and more.

1. MedlinePlus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html
2. DailyMed http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/
3. Drugs.com http://www.drugs.com/
4. FDA Index to Drug Safety Information http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm111085.htm

Medical Journals and Articles

1. PubMed http://pubmed.gov/
2. PubMed Central http://pubmedcentral.nih.gov
3. Medscape http://www.medscape.com/
4. MdLinx http://mdlinx.com/
5. Free Medical Journals http://www.freemedicaljournals.com
6. JAMA http://jama.ama-assn.org
7. New England Journal of Medicine http://content.nejm.org
8. BioMed Central http://www.biomedcentral.com

In the next article we will look at techniques to help search the web more effectively so as to get better and faster results. In case you feel there are websites which should be included in the lists above which I have missed out, please feel free to mention them in the comments below or connect with me (@nrip) via twitter.

Link to the next article: Understanding Search Engines to Improve Your Searches

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Practice Websites - Helping Patients

The logical first step to creating rich Databanks of Provider Information is to create identities for Providers in the electronic world. The simplest way to do this is to Create Websites for Doctors, Clinics and Hospitals. This may not necessarily be individual websites for practices which don’t want to invest in one, but can even be simple informative single web pages to fulfill the purpose of creating an identity for them aka http://www.about.me

Such websites can be optimized to convey Services, Location and Contact Information, Medical Notes, Special Cases treated. Such optimization will help in disseminating useful provider information to people looking for the same. This isn’t advertising, it’s a service: people today face many choices and are hampered by lack of information, improving their ability to find information quickly is beneficial to them. Thus a website aids people in locating you and learning more about you.

For those Practices and Practioneers who decide to create web sites, the following tips will help: 

-- On your website, don’t only talk about you, tell the patients more about what diseases and disabilities you treat, what are the latest treatments, generic advice and maybe even help them going to right person if you weren’t involved. 

-- Use tools like interactive patient forms which can be filled before the patient arrives at the center

-- Use query forms on the website so that patients can ask you about their problems and doubts; this gives the feeling to your patients that you are available to them 24/7 without actually being there 

Technical Doctors has partnered with a high quality partner for providing medical practices, doctors and healthcare institutions with feature rich and patient friendly websites at affordable prices. Click to know more.

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Survey Regarding Medical Websites for Doctors, Clinics and Small Hospitals

As a Doctor, what are your expectations from a Website. Apart from the basic features of a website, there are some simple tools which can go a long way to improve your website experience for your patients. Our aim is to recommend these tools , such as health calculators, video galleries, online patient history forms; customized ask the doctor queries; and Google maps which provide directions to the clinic. To understand you better we request you to help us out by filling in the following survey.

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A Guide to Improving your Patient Interaction and Outreach

Technology enables, but man disables by not taking advantage of opportunities given to him. As a Physicians today, you have many key touch points to increase and consequently improve your interactions with patients. Some are simple methods, some require a little bit of work, but what is the end advantage of it all? For one thing it makes you popular amongst patients;  and the side effect could lead you to get more business.

Second it helps educate and provide information to patients and people who may read just what they need, thanks to you! A little help goes a long way in accumulating blessings.

Third, contributing to the general knowledge resource of the community improves the very community you are part off, it encourages others to follow suit.

So now what do you need to do?

1. Reach out to many in the general audience: Start writing, the internet lets you update and express views, either as 160 character bursts on twitter, or a long blog detailing your experience.

Twitter: On twitter you can start putting up bursts of interesting cases you see, new techniques you here about, information about your local medical network which may help people in your area! Go onto www.twitter.com, register yourself and type away.

Blogging: Doing a lot of research which you think people should here about, or have an opinion which potential patients should here about, blog about it. Many people will find it online as they search for an information panacea for their problem and be happy to come across your blog.

2. Create a mechanism such that people can contact you: For a start, get a practice website. It helps you disseminate information about your services for people looking for the same. It isn’t advertising, it’s a service, people today face many choices and are hampered by lack of information, improving their ability to find information quickly is beneficial to them.

On your website, don’t only talk about you, tell the patients more about what diseases and disabilities you treat, what are the latest treatments, generic advice and maybe even help them going to right person if you weren’t involved.

Use tools like interactive patient forms which can be filled before the patient arrives at the center, saving time and giving you a heads up on the patient’s needs. Use query forms on the website so that people can ask you about their problems, patients their doubts; this gives the feeling to your patients that you are available to them 24/7 without actually being there. Technical Doctor encourages doctors to have their own websites through their initiative http://www.technicaldr.com/tdr/websites-for-doctors. We also offer advice and consulting to help your website create the best impact on your patients and potential clients.

3. Using Software tools: Use softwares which improve communications. Invest in software which doesn’t just keep your records and accounts. The software should come with communications tools integrated and can be used with ease. Emailing of schedules and reports to patients is a must.

The software should also allow using SMSes to send reminders, alerts, prescription reminders etc. This is a new level of service, and patients will be thrilled to know there is always an alert to give them confidence in their moments of doubt.

Online Medical records allow patients to access their records remotely, insist on looking at software which promotes this feature if not today, but at least is compatible with this extension in the future. Technical Doctor provides EMR software products which come coupled with email, SMS and online EMRs. We encourage doctors to use these services to improve their service quality. You can see our products on http://www.technicaldr.com

4. Accessing data and messages on your phone: Today you may be using you phone to send SMSs, read emails and play games online. Why stop there, use it to drive business wherever you are. Neat and simple apps provide you fingertip information, coupled with your own website, or software they can become powerful tools in your hands to handle patients remotely.

Access patient alerts via the phone or your actual software to pull up data remotely. Technical Doctor already has a suite of products and apps which can run on phone browsers.

5. Contribute to journals and medical website online: Numerous sources are present where doctors submit their stories, research and experiences. The medical and patient community will be greatly benefited by your inputs, a little effort online will show you exactly where you should be adding your data.

6. Using new cool online tools to make education interesting: Nowadays making a presentation, cartoon strip or a cartoon movie to help educate your patients or interested clients is easy. Many tools are available online which let you render very interesting collaterals that can help ease patient doubts and also make it fun. Tools like www.bitstrips.com which we use to make cartoons helps in creating awareness in an educational yet informal way. Putting these up on your clinic facebook page or on your website is the best option.

These are just some pointers on how technology can help you as a doctor to interact with patients and also general public looking for information in your areas of expertise. It’s time to exercise your power using technology, so see you out there soon.

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Features in Practice Websites which increase Patient Satisfaction

An important part of managing a patient over a long period of time is communicating with the patient. Most follow up cases in medical practices have niche requirements and consequently patients have certain expectations from their physicians. Also a happy patient is a physician’s most powerful marketing asset. Practices should strive to provide for such patients by offering services which improve the quality of service they perceive, which in turn will increases their satisfaction.

A well planned and feature rich practice website allows physicians to assist patients in their day-to-day living by providing timely solutions for all their health queries even after a visit. For a patient, this continued access to expert medical advice via simple online tools is one of the most cherished features of any e-practice.

Despite best efforts, many patients make errors while following medical advice. Many times, follow-up patients have new queries they wish they could simply share with their physicians. A large number of patients also do not ask new questions just because they don’t want to look stupid in front of their physicians! These patients are often unsure of the importance of their queries and generally procrastinate visiting their physicians for answers. Sometimes new complaints crop up which may or may not affect the ongoing medical management. The internet, via a medical website, allows physicians to clarify many such small doubts these patients face while following medical advice. A timely word of advice can save these patients a whole lot of pain, literally and figuratively. Important issues which may arise during such advice can be solved by arranging for a new visit.

There are a number of ways medical websites and integrated web 2.0 tools can be used to help physicians improve patient-physician communications and thus decrease the morbidity among patients. Let’s look at five such applications:

Online Chats

Chatting on the internet is something most patients are comfortable with. Medical websites can have widgets which allow patients to directly chat with the physician or the physician’s representative. This is a common and simple to add functionality within any medical website. Patients can be given pre-decided timings (say, 9 p.m - 10 p.m on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) when the physician shall be available for the chat. Such chat transcripts can then be appended to the electronic medical record of the concerned patient. More people can be added to chats so as to allow group discussions (e.g: Friday evening hour long chat session for all Pregnant women, in case of gynae practices).

Contact Forms and Feedback Forms

Medical websites allow all registered members (i.e. follow-up cases) to access some parts of the website which are meant only for them. A simple form is embedded within this secure area through which a follow-up patient can ask a question. These questions are then directed to the physician’s email address. The physician can answer such questions securely via email or even ask the patient to book an appointment if required. Ideally, physicians should create an email id purely for answering queries of follow up cases. This will help in segmenting all electronic medical communications between physicians and patients. All such queries are also automatically added to electronic medical record of that patient.

Facebook Groups

After email, Facebook is the most commonly used online platform for communications. physicians can easily use this platform (by forming closed groups) for answering some of the common queries by their patients. All follow up patients who share their primary email id can be added to specific closed groups on Facebook. These patients can post their queries on the group wall (which is not public and viewable only by group members) or send it as a direct message. Answers which have general significance for all patients can be posted on the group wall (e.g.: I am taking Metoprolol XL 50 mg once daily for my hypertension. I am scheduled for a tooth extraction next week. What precautions should I take? ). Personal queries can be answered via direct messaging. Urgent and important issues can be simply escalated to a telephonic conversation. Over time, such a Facebook group shall mature into a powerful resource for all new members. 

Video Chat

Questions which require visual inputs (like appearance of rashes or swelling on hands and feet) can be handled by using Video chat within Facebook. Important advice can be reinforced by typing it into the chat area so as to create a transcript document of the encounter. There are medical social media guidelines published by many international organizations which can be followed for all such patient-physician communications on Facebook.

eVisits using Skype

Physicians can also use Skype and payment gateways like PayPal to organize revenue generating e-visits by follow-up cases who find it difficult to physically visit the clinic premises at regular intervals. This is especially the case with geriatric and physically challenged patients.

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Medical Websites Help Small Practices Compete Against Large Hospitals

Practicing medicine in the private sector is a very tough proposition. It’s not enough simply to be a very good doctor; Its also imperative that one is known by most to be a very good doctor. It’s not enough to provide all the latest treatment options and services; Everyone must also know or be able to find out easily all the services provided at a practice/hospital.

Traditional Healthcare Communication Meant Word-Of-Mouth Publicity

Traditionally, physicians and medical practices have relied on word-of-mouth publicity to establish themselves. A patient who has undergone an event-free angiography at the local cardiac care center would then tell five others about his/her wonderful experience.And now five more people know about the latest angiography services at that cardiac center. Hopefully, this positive review would continue in a geometric progression and more and more people would visit the medical center. 

But is that enough? Also, what about the high tech cardiac catheterization and latest stenting services also available at that center? There would be hundreds of bits of positive details about your practice most patients would’nt even get to know of. Hoping that all visitors to a medical center realize all its plus points and then remember to pass these plus points to others is so optimistic, it’s foolish. Thus word-of-mouth publicity serves a very limited role in evangelizing any healthcare services.

Challenges In Healthcare Communication

Medical practices can no longer rely only on word-of-mouth to inform the world about their existence. But they also face a big handicap. They need to make themselves and their quality services known without resorting to overt advertising. Clinics and smaller hospitals face a specially forbidding challenge in breaking through this glass ceiling of ‘perceived quality’. Sheer size has allowed larger hospitals to carry an aura of quality, irrespective of the services they provide. In contrast, many clinics which provide top-of-the-line services are just not accorded due respect or simply remain unknown.

Medical Websites In Healthcare Communication

Despite providing the best services, many small practices are labeled ‘poor quality’ simply because of low visibility. Technology has broken down this artificial divide between small and larger medical practices. A high quality website has become the single most important way to establish your credibility, authority and niche online. Websites and social media channels provide an easy to access free platform for showcasing your expertise to any targeted/ segmented population.

A website becomes the way people remember and recall your clinic. A website creates a visual brand for your medical practice, allowing strong recall value even among people who may never have visited your clinic. With the help of a high quality medical website, a niche specialty clinic can achieve the same recognition as many large super-specialty hospitals.

Beyond branding, the practical utilities medical practices can provide the patients via their websites are plenty. Appointment scheduling and lab reports can easily be accessed via medical websites. Interactive patient communication widgets and electronic health records can add an entirely new dimension to the concept of medical websites.

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