Hey Doc, What It Is

Are you still trying to decide if there a return-on-investment available through the use of social media? While you’re waiting you’re losing. Losing future dollars. Losing relevance. The value of your voice in the community is depreciating as patient-driven physicians are amassing new wealth in the form of clout. Clout with future patients and clout eventually becomes dollars.

Those doctors or healthcare organizations aren’t necessarily better at medicine than you. They’re simply better at culture. Your value proposition in the marketplace is what you know about achieving positive health outcomes. You’re pretty good at connecting that to a patient’s experience in the exam room, through a prescription or in surgery. But how’re you doing out there?  You know, online via social media. 

Still looking for something to prove it’s the right thing for you? Well, how about letting me debunk some health care social media myths for you.  You know, tell you what it is (and what it’s not).

It’s not a road to nowhere. It is a path to connectivity with patients, their families, future patients and others who influence health choices. 

It is a way for you to maintain a general conversation with the community that demonstrates a willingness to share information that might make a difference in their wellbeing. By the way, people who share make more friends. Friends refer friends. Friends are patients, too.

It’s not date night. Your patients are not asking you to out to dinner.  They’re simply looking to connect through their preferred channel. And this one has emerged to be that.

It is by all evidence an affordable conduit to the future as those with options choose providers, and those within plans sort one doctor or organization from another based on word of mouth, ratings, and social media manner—like bedside manner but on your smartphone.

It’s not a drive through window. Patients are not likely to ask for a diagnosis of some ailment. They’re too private for that. They’re just looking for something that might help them sift through clues about what ails them and you’re their most trusted source for that kind of information.

Look, I don’t profess to know much about making money but I have learned this, people connect with those who care. And caring starts with sharing.  Social Media is that.

Hey Doc, What About the New Ones?

Last month I sat with my son as he completed an online application for healthcare insurance via the Affordable Care Act Health Exchanges.  I wasn’t there because he needed my help. He’s smart and web savvy like most of his generation. I’m just into this subject to be helpful to you.

Anyway, he’s off Mom and Dad’s insurance. He’s paying for his healthcare for the first time ever. He’s making his own decision about healthcare providers. He actually wants to get a physical and develop a relationship with a doctor. But surprise, he finds the whole thing exasperating. It’s not for the reason you might think. No, it’s not the money.  His frustration stems from how counter intuitive the process is to the way his generation works.

His frustration is an opportunity for someone. It occurred to me that that someone might be you and that social media might be a way to bridge the communication gap, improve this generation’s perception of the healthcare community/process and drive patients to you.

Here’s how:

First, nearly 90% of those 18 to 24 years of age said they would trust medical information shared by others on their social media networks.  A millennial’s network on social media is a group of people that is well trusted, which again, presents an opportunity to connect with them as healthcare professional in a new and authentic way. Be transparent. Share information that’s helpful, and include how to pay for things. They just want to know.

Second, more than 80% of the millennial generation said that information found via social media affects the way they deal with everything – health, too. Healthcare professionals have an obligation to create educational content to be shared across social media that will help accurately inform this generation about health related issues and squash misleading information. The opinions of others on social media are often trusted but aren’t always accurate, especially when it comes to a subject as sensitive as health.  Be present. Listen as much as you “tweet”.  Share what you’d want your child to know and dialogue with them if they reach out to you. Hey, their doctor’s voice will cut through the online clutter but they also expect to be heard.

Third, about 75% of the 18 to 24 year olds said social media would affect their choice of a specific doctor or medical facility. This makes social media important as a tool to help accelerate positive and overcome negative word of mouth. It can attract new patients, minimize missed appointments, retain your patients, and win their referrals. Millennials are using social media to discuss everything in their lives including health and it is up to you to tune in.

Fourth, millennials are the most likely group of social media users to trust social media posts and activity by doctors.  They see doctors as respected members of society (yeah, really) who are also highly revered for their opinions when they are shared on social media, which is even more reason to help boost your reach as a healthcare provider and use social media to discuss health issues, choosing healthcare plans, meeting providers, and getting well.  This may require that you explore some new channels. Think Instagram. This generation is definitely a “show me don’t tell me” community of patients.

Hmmm. Now that I think about it, millennials are not the only ones who can relate to these ideas. The percentages may vary but the impact could be more immediate to your business if middle-aged people find you online. But if you’re thinking about tomorrow and the new patients coming into the healthcare stream, consider connecting with millennials via social media. They’re Moms and Dads will thank you.

Q. 

What are you doing to include this generation in your practice development strategy? 

Hey Doc, What's the Greatest Advance in Medicine?

You’ve been there. On a flight between somewhere and home, seated next to a stranger on their way to some other place. Conversations are usually light if they happen at all. We’re often trying to catch a nap or speeding our way through some sort of work on the laptop before touchdown. But this time I was seated next to a doctor who was winding down a practice he’d only recently sold and headed into what he called “halftime”. His plan was to start a new career. I couldn’t help asking him what he found the most rewarding about the one he was exiting.   

The doctor had been the chief medical officer of a fifteen physician general practice with some areas of specialization but his primary focus was family medicine. I asked, “What do you think have been the top medical advances during you tenure?”  His answer was winding until he decided to focus on the most recent 10 years or so and people.

He was hopeful about the big picture advances like the 2003 announcement that scientists had completed a draft sequencing of the human genome, or all the genes that make up our DNA.

The doctor appreciated the increased application of minimally invasive surgeries, laparoscopic surgery has become the norm for many operations, including gall bladder removal, hernia repair and appendectomies among other things.

And, medications like those that address sexual dysfunction, “in the way that Viagra is used to treat erectile dysfunction,” he said.

I thought out loud, ”That’s quite a journey from mapping the human genome to the bedroom. What do those things have anything in common?”

His answer was quick, “people.”

Of course, people.

It turns out that “relationship” is the thing he will miss most about practicing medicine.  He made the connection this way:

Experts say sequencing each person’s genome would be beneficial to prevent a variety of heart ailments and even obesity. “Just knowing they have a higher risk of obesity could be enough motivation for patients to lead a healthier lifestyle,” he said adding that it was one of the Top 3 issues his clinic addressed with patients.

Laparoscopic surgery matters because patients generally endure less pain, smaller scars and a shorter recovery period. “Patient types who might have tried to live with their conditions in the past were more inclined to seek treatment now. They feared missing work and losing jobs. Less recovery time means less time off the job.”

The pilot interrupted our chat to announce our descent into Memphis. So I asked, “Our time together is limited. I get the people part of the genome and surgical advances but where’s the people part intersect with Viagra?” I felt like an eighth grader.

“Relationships are about people. Medications like Viagra have helped to restore intimate relationships between husbands and wives.” He smiled and said, “These medications aren’t about feeling manly like some TV commercial might suggest. I’ve prescribed them to couples that had drifted apart. During counseling sessions I’d learned that they were no longer having sex and that it was often about the husband’s being physically incapable of performing. Men and women have written to tell me that a prescription to address erectile dysfunction saved their marriage.”

Relationships. People. Of course, it’s why any advance in medicine is relevant. And it’s also why social media matters. People want access to information that might be helpful in treatment of a condition they’re trying to manage or that might inform their ability to be useful to a friend or family member who suffers a medical condition.

Access to information from a trusted voice, like their doctor, could be the advance in medicine that makes the biggest difference in the life of someone in your patient community.  

Map their genome? You may not be doing a personalized sequencing but we’re all learning from those who are.

Prescribe the right medication? Sure, that’s most likely within your realm of authority.

Sharing information that’s helpful? You can. You’re one of the most important people or relationships in a patient’s life. And advances in the use of social media for that purpose have made it one of (what may someday prove to be among) the top advances in medicine.

      Sources:

·            A passenger on Delta Airlines Flight 3743, Row 3, Seat A, Stanford University and CNN Health News

Hey Doc, We Live in the Future

We live in the future. And you know it's true. This past weekend I was watching some reruns of shows from my childhood. I saw the Jetsons. I saw Star Trek. And that's when it occurred to me, we live in the future.

I watched as Mr. Spacely called George Jetson on his television. Well that's what we thought it was at the time. Little did we know that there would be Skype, Google Hangouts and FaceTime that would allow us to talk to someone face-to-face miles away or just around the corner. We can now see and converse with others without leaving our homes. Without leaving our offices. At the convenience of the caller and at the convenience of the one we called.

I saw Star Trek. And I'm sure it's occurred to you before now, that the “communicator” in the hand of Mr. Spock or Captain Kirk was actually a lot like a smartphone. Spock’s ability to turn that handheld device into something that would read the environment or Dr. McCoy’s ability to use it or something like it to scan a body was beyond belief. Now we have apps that power our iPhones and Android devices to do similarly futuristic things.

Look, it's easy to get bogged down in the rules and regulations of an industry. They're there to protect us all. Comply. But what if we allow our imaginations to lead for a minute as relates to the part of doctoring that really matters to us most, patient engagement.

We'd find ways to connect with those who can't get from their homes and to our offices.

What if we find ways to empower patients to tend to themselves, to know more about the environment that they're in and how it affects their health?

We'd have smarter patients and better health outcomes.

Okay enough of the hyperbole it's time to get real. We live in the future. But we practice too much in the past.

So here's what a savvy doctors going to do this year: tap into that Jetsons television thing and enable patients or colleagues to communicate via Skype or Apple’s FaceTime to explore what needs to be explored. 

My twitter-friend Dr. Howard Luks (@HJLuks on Twitter) says that he finds this approach to telemedicine useful in consulting with his patients and would invite conversation, by FaceTime no doubt, with doctors who might be trying to find their way toward the future.

Speaking of exploration, savvy doctors will learn how to use mobile devices and apps that run on them to help patients communicate with their doctor and to help the patient and doctor know more about the environment that they are in and how such circumstances affect their well-being.

Last March I met Dr. Daniel Kraft, MD (@daniel_kraft on Twitter) at SXSWi (South by Southwest Innovation conference). He was there to speak on health care innovation powered by smartphones. It was cool. And it would have seemed like “future talk” were it not for the number of people in the room already using one or more of the diet, exercise, sleep monitoring, cardio, diabetes and anxiety management apps he spoke of there.

Look, George Jetson would get out on the now ever so commonplace treadmill to exercise his dog. Maybe this is the year to exercise your medical practice. Maybe this is the time to rethink patient engagement so that we can get off this crazy thing called the status quo and into the future. Some of us are already there.