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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Physicians and Blogging - II

This is a follow up post to "Physicians and Blogging". Here we look at Tips for Physicians to make their Blogging experience more useful, effective and mostly fun.

1. Clearly identify a theme for your blog.

A Blog is like any other project. If you don't have a path you won't know where you end up. Create a central theme for your blog and stick to it. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogs

2. Use Pictures as much as possible

A picture speaks a 1000 words. To make your blogging appeal more to your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it.

N.B It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself.

3. Make it interactive

As much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. You can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.You can even place an area for comments. In this way, you can get the impressions and/or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.

4. Choose a good Blogging Engine

While there are many blogging platforms and applications, there are a few simple ones which are more popular than others. Blogger and Wordpress both offer multiple free and simple to customize themes. They are both easy to use and allow one to post text, images, audio as well as videos.

In future posts we will provide a tutorial to setup a blog using each

5. Network Online

The more you network online, the more your blog gets visibility. Share your posts on Social networks. Ask other readers to give you suggestions, respond to comments. The success this brings will push you to blog more and will help make your blog even more meaningful.

Feel free to post your suggestions as well as links to your blogs in the comments sections below.

If you'd need any help setting up blogs for yourself, please let us know. We'll be Happy to Help


Happy #hcsm via @TechnicalDr and @nrip

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Physicians and Blogging

Recently I came across this simple piece of advice in an infographic on OnStartups

"To be understood write a Blog, to be ignored write a Business Plan". A simple way to explain why blogging is and will be around.

A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read.

Like a journal, one can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Blogs are not a "one size fit all" concept, its more of a "This is what I feel" concept.. Given that, its no surprise that Blogs come in different types, styles and formats depending on the author/s.

Some bloggers write personal stories, some share poems, while some talk about their thoughts and ideas. Some share images, videos and audio, while some are simple text.

Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by publishing their ideas as audio podcasts. This is called audio blogging.

So why should a Physican blog? What can a Physician Blog about ?

Physicians as professionals, learn something unique and interesting everyday. They should blog because they have experiences which are fascinating and stories which are unique; that people want to hear. They should blog so that medical students and the younger upcoming physicians learn from their experiences. They should blog because if they don't, they will be wasting an opportunity that is available today to archive the information they possess.

 

A Physician can blog to educate, to share their vision, to market themselves and their practices, or simply show that they have a human side ...

A Blog can help you build a physicians online presence faster than any other method today. Its the natural extension to a website and due to its sticky nature, helps create an engaging presence

A Few Popular Blogs by Physicians (Just a few  from then ones we read regularly)

http://dinosaurmusings.wordpress.com/

http://drwes.blogspot.com/

http://cacocog.blogspot.com/

http://casesblog.blogspot.com/

http://angrydr.blogspot.com/

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/

http://doctordavidsblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.docisinblog.com/

http://blog.drmalpani.com/

http://ohiosurgery.blogspot.com/

http://33charts.com/

http://uncommonstudentmd.com/

http://gruntdoc.com/

http://drhelen.blogspot.com/

Feel free to post your blogs in the comments sections below.
If you'd need any help setting up blogs for yourself, please let us know. We'll be Happy to Help


Happy #hcsm via @TechnicalDr and @nrip

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Physicians on Facebook - Do's and Dont's for #hcsm

So finally Social Media has hit the spot with doctors. Its the first form of technology which Doctors have adopted worldwide on their own( without pressure, incentives or kickbacks.)

Recent statistics show that while 87% of the physicians surveyed reported using Social media for personal purposes, a significant 67% also claimed to be using it for Professional use. Social Media has ushered healthcare into an exciting world of free expression and multi faceted communication

There have also been some unfortunate cases coming to light, where doctors have been penalized for overdoing it on Social Media. Also 45 % of the organizations surveyed claimed to have no policy for Social Media. In this article we'll look at some do's and don'ts for Physicians so that they can use Facebook safely and not let it cause legal problems for themselves in the future.

1. Don't talk about your Patients - Talk about yourself, your cases, your peers ... But don't talk about your patients. Their privacy is protected by law ...

2. When you talk about yourself, your cases and your peers, make sure you are not identifying your patients

3. Dont practice medicine from inside Social Networks. Avoid the common traps of responding to medical questions.

4. Try to avoid getting drawn into negative discussions on a public forum. On facebook you can hold a private discussion with a colleague on "How you feel your hospital needs to improve ?" in the privacy of personal messages and chats ... Avoid this on your wall..

5. Try to create a facebook page for yourself or your practice. With this in place, you can avoid having to accept friend requests from patients, redirecting them instead to like your page.

6. Dont post objectionable content. Physician or not, inebriated pictures and vulgar comments are not cool. Even if they seem to be for a particular phase in life.

7. When something objectionable is posted, accept it , apologize for it and remove it.

8. Set your Privacy Settings on various networks appropriately to safeguard your information and content. This helps you protect yourself when Rule No 1 is crossed.

DO have fun, be transparent and DO voice your views. DO  provide tips on where to gain trustworthy information online and offline , DO make connections but make sure you follow the above 8 points.

Happy #hcsm via @TechnicalDr and @nrip

N.B A Wonderful Article with Do's and Don'ts for Nurses using Social Media are available at http://www.nursezone.com/nursing-news-events/more-news/The-Dos-and-Don%E2%80%99ts-of-Social-Media-for-Nurses_36754.aspx

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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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Technology and The Patient

True engagement comes about through two-way, mutually beneficial conversations.

Technology must look to create multiple ways to facilitate both formal and informal Patient- Doctor Communication. The telephone made a huge impact on the way we communicate, and so did email. Newer technologies must be used to offer ease of use, increase reach and lower costs. Many providers today communicate with their patients using skype, google chat and even facebook. Technologies must build on such success stories.

Doctor–Patient Communication will also benefit if technology vendors link Communication mechanisms to Provider Information Sources and Health Information Exchanges

-- Provide integrations of these mechanisms with clinical and diagnostic software(EMR's, EHR's , etc)

-- Emailing of schedules and reports to patients is a must.

-- Using SMS to send Medical alerts, reminders, and schedules

-- Go the extra distance and use Social Media to provide alerts and reminders to patients via Facebook Messages, Twitter DM's, etc

For years, patients have liked to work in groups, to support each other, to help themselves cope with illnesses which their near and dear ones don’t understand, to seek advice from others who have similar ailments. 

Bringing people together in collaborative dialogue to explore social conditions that are the major influences of health and illness generates deeper collective awareness and community-driven action.

Since Individuals don’t see their lives partitioned into an online and offline world, Online communities should be given as much value as offline ones. A variety of Online Communities must come up for connecting patients quickly and privately with others who share similar health experiences. A fantastic example of one such community is Patients Like Me

Technology today exists not only in the form of created online communities but also online community frameworks; These allow just about anyone with an idea for a group or community to set up an online network, full with video and audio chats, whiteboarding, discussion forums and groups and all the other good stuff.

This helps create an integrated digital ecosystem which simultaneously addresses both individual and social dimensions of health. In effect this

-- Allows Patients to engage with each other

-- Allows Providers to engage with this medium

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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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Social Networking for Physicians – Tips and Options

With millions of patients seeking medical help and information on social media and the Internet, it has become imperative for physicians to connect with existing and potential patients as well as the medical community across the globe using social media and other means of electronic communication. A study by the online physician learning collaborative QuantiaMD in August 2011 indicates that nearly all physicians in the United States are social media users. However, the study also reveals that most physicians engage in social networking for personal purposes only, appearing rather reluctant to adopt it for enhancing professional interactivity and building a web presence for their medical brands.

Social Media Tips for Physicians

Social networking can help physicians manage their online reputation. Signing up for a static profile on Facebook or Twitter does not make for an active social media presence as it contributes zero value to doctor-patient relationships or the physician’s positioning in the medical and patient community. A good social media strategy must consolidate your presence and identity over a number of social media communities.

Here are some tips on how physicians can improve their social media presence to build a strong online medical brand for themselves.

Content Creation - Blogs and Social Media Sites

Social media websites give you access to a valuable network of prospective patients looking for credible medical information. Naturally, the best way to reach out and connect with them is to provide the information they need. Creating and publishing medical content like your medical experiences, breakthrough cases, innovative medical practices and other crucial medical information on your website, blog and also guest medical blogs can help you create a reputation of credibility and goodwill.

Posting links to such exclusive and valuable medical content on social media websites and other medical blogs will boost your visibility and reach. Over time, such consistent and organized social media linked blogging will make you a trusted name in the medical community, helping you position yourself as an influential thought leader in your specialization.

Informative Videos

Another effective way to engage patients is by posting informative and educational medical videos on You Tube and similar sites. Conversion rates from You Tube are found to be about 20% higher than search engines. A good social media strategy will include this tool to achieve greater reach, link building and visibility.

Social Media Attitude

Social media plays an important role in influencing opinions and perceptions. With so much information available on the Internet, patients often resort to online medical communities to conduct background checks, read patient reviews and testimonials before consulting a physician. Doctors must therefore maintain strict social media etiquette and decorum at all times. Upholding a positive attitude towards patients and other professionals in the network, willingness to help, answer questions, address concerns and being accessible can go a long way in building strong social media relationships as well as your medical brand and practice.

Social Networking Options for Physicians

Apart from general social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, specialized physician communities are a great way to connect with other professionals in the industry. 

Some popular social media sites for physicians are DocGlobal, Sermo, Ozmosis, DoctorsHangout.com, MomMD, DoctorNetwork and StudentDoctor.net.

These medical networking circles help you interact with the international medical community. They are also a valuable resource for critical medical information and research.

Patient communities are also very effective in leveraging social media to encourage patient-doctor communication. Even though they are not very popular with physicians as compared to other social networking platforms, practitioners must use these forums to learn about their patients and inform themselves about patient concerns, needs and healthcare requirements and utilize these to improve the quality of care.

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How are Physicians taking to Social Media?

Social Media is no more just an in-thing. It has quickly become an integral part of our days and provided an excellent online extension to our lives. And it is now being used to keep track of sport scores, understanding stock market trends, ordering dinner etc. Social Media has also started making its in presence felt in various aspects of healthcare.

In an online survey carried out over apprx. 4,000 doctors with regards their involvement and interest in different types of social media, 87 % of the physicians claimed to be active on at least one social media site for personal use, while 67 % had used social media sites professionally too.

This is remarkable, given that a year back, predicting such numbers would have been preposterous. What is even more remarkable is that 66 % of the respondents described themselves as either “positive” or “very positive” with regard to the impact online patient communities are having on patients.

While Physicians were found to favor the social biggies, Facebook and LinkedIn over Twitter, 28 % said they were also using Physician Specific Online Communities. This is an interesting result and shows the scope for targeted and richer social networks directed at physicians. Sermo, DoctorsHangout, DocGlobal are 3 popular networks, and we’re sure that in 2012, a number of smaller more focused networks will also emerge.

While all seems to point to increased usage of Social media amongst Physicians, there are some aspects which will need addressing. Most surveyed physicians expressed concerns about privacy and legal ramifications. There is a great post by Dave Ekrem, on “7 tips to avoid HIPAA violations in social media” at kevinmd.com for the interested. 

Besides these, it seems to be a concern to Physicians that there was no way to get paid for interacting with patients online. As more physicians jump on the Social media bandwagon, more concerns are bound to be raised. But each problem offers a potential business case. Some innovative EMR providers like have already demonstrated smart integrations with Social Services like Twitter and Facebook to help create a more robust patient record.

Also, social networks will start emerging which let patients discuss their problems and offer doctors the chance to help them. From a marketing perspective, this will help physicians create more trust amongst patients leading to more referrals.

13 % have participated in public online discussion forums with other physicians, while 2% have participated in public online discussions with patients; and 5 % have engaged in online chat with other physicians, while 2 % have engaged in online chat with their patients.

Another common concern amongst social media savvy physicians was that the technology was too new for them. This will get addressed over time as physicians get more acquainted with latest in technology. The more they use technology, the faster they will be able to adapt to newer technologies.

Use of Social Media is sure to grow amongst physicians. Since it involves both involvement as well as content, Social Media used effectively can help both in promotions as well as a medium for education.

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Cloud Computing in Healthcare

This article aims to discuss aspects of cloud computing that are relevant to the healthcare industry and can be applied by doctors to improve their practice.

What Should Doctors Know About Cloud Computing?

There is a sea of information available on the internet about cloud computing and how it works. As a doctor with limited interest in information technology, understanding all that jargon (most of which may not even be directly related to your work and computing requirements) can be quite intimidating and time consuming.

Simply put, the cloud is a set of hardware, networks, storage, services and interfaces that are equipped to provide computing power, infrastructure, applications, software, business processes and storage – in short, all your computing needs, as a service wherever and whenever you need it.

Migrating to the cloud 'can' help you reduce cost, space, time and power that would otherwise be utilized for traditional IT services performing the same functions. This is possible because the cloud puts together a large pool of computing resources available to be used as an assured service by anyone who wishes to use it, anywhere in the world. Traditional IT environments on the other hand, have a limited set of resources that are independently managed and delivered to a limited number of people confined to a certain geographic location, thus pushing cost, time, space and power factors.

Using Cloud Computing To Improve Your Practice

Cloud computing can transform the way healthcare is practiced by empowering professionals to deliver better care at lower costs. Cloud computing allows doctors, researchers and scientists across the globe to collaborate and form a centralized, integrated and regularly updated medical database that can be seamlessly accessed by healthcare professionals without having to invest in over-the-top infrastructure or software. Doctors can use the cloud for viewing reports, scans, EMRs, prescriptions and information required to solve complex medical problems anywhere in the world.

Patients’ health data and EMRs can be combined to form a single, comprehensive health record that can be instantly accessed from one single source. The cloud also brings together patient information like insurance claims, prescription and drug details, lab reports, patient history and progress in cases of chronic illnesses and other details and consolidates them to be available at the point of care whenever required.

This not only helps improve the level of accuracy with which care is delivered but also reduces the time and cost of treatment for physicians and patients alike. As all data is sourced from a single, homogenous center, it also brings down the possibility of conflicting treatments, prescriptions and medical data miscommunication in cases where multiple physicians and providers are involved.

Cloud computing is typically subscription based. In many cases, it works on a metered billing model of payment where you pay only for what you use. It also allows for flexible self-service by which you can enable and disable the provision of required services depending on your usage and needs.

Cloud computing users need not invest in heavy capital expenditure on hardware, software, and services. As resources can be unsubscribed whenever required, the risk of investment is considerably reduced. The cloud also addresses increased data storage needs of physicians without having them spend on expensive personal storage devices. Software updates and innovation are centrally managed by cloud service providers, helping doctors focus the best part of their day on patient care.

Cloud computing can thus help physicians meet meaningful use criteria as it demonstrates better quality of care, lower costs and higher insurance/government reimbursements.

Popular Cloud Services

Most of us have “been on the cloud” without even knowing about it (eg: Facebook is an example of a public cloud). Depending on the visibility of data there are three types of cloud platforms: Public, private and hybrid (a combination of public and private).

A more popular classification is based on the services offered:

1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offers hardware related services like disk storage, database or virtual servers. Amazon Web Services (AWS),Rackspace Cloud Servers and Flexiscale are popular IaaS providers.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) offers development platforms. Google’s Application Engine, Microsofts Azure, Salesforce.com’s force.com are well-knows in this category.

3. Software as service (SaaS) involves software services on the cloud like web based software applications, email services and so on. Popular examples of SaaS services are Salesforce.com (CRM), Google’s Gmail, Google Apps, Dropbox, Zoho, QuickBooks, Piwik, Microsoft Hotmail and their online version of office called BPOS (Business Productivity Online Standard Suite).

A good read on top cloud platforms at http://www.liventerprise.com/news/3608/.

Cloud Security

Cloud security and data ownership is a major concern for users and new adopters of cloud computing. As there is very little regulation currently pertaining to cloud computing, there are many data privacy and security issues to be dealt with. New users must be informed about details on who owns the data, third parties that may gain access to the data and the jurisdiction of the contract. We will look at Cloud Security in detail via a separate article.

References:

1. http://ehealth.johnwsharp.com/2008/09/19/the-intelligent-cloud-implications-for-health-and-medicine/

2. http://thecloudtutorial.com/cloudtypes.html

3. http://lawandmedicine.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/cloud-computing-the-future/

4. http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Cloud_Computing

5. http://www.goomedic.com/applying-cloud-computing-on-medicine-part-2.html

6. http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing

7. http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031

8. https://www.technologyreview.com/business/38473/page2/

9. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/10/18/bisa1018.htm

10. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32267.wss

11. http://socialmediatoday.com/garylevin/296483/why-cloud-computing-may-be-dead-healthcare-and-medicine

12. http://healthtrain.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-cloud-computing-may-be-dead-for.html

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