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Your hospital has a great website with lots of clever graphics, health calculators, videos, and flash presentations ! Your marketing department is very pleased that you now have a Youtube and Twitter channel and a Facebook page. However, if you are using your hospital website as just a branding tool or a digital hospital brochure , you are not getting most bang for your buck !
You need to integrate Information Therapy as part of your medical workflow, so your doctors can provide better medical care to their patients; and your patients can have a hospital experience they can rave about !




By using clever new applications based on the Healthwise Knowledgebase , you can marry Information Therapy with EMRs, patient portals and web 2.0 social media, to improve the care you provide to your patients , to convert them into raving fans !

Let’s consider a patient with arthritis who needs knee replacement surgery. If your website has lots of valuable content on arthritis and its treatment options, it will rank high on google, which means the patient is very likely to come across your website during his search. If the information you provide is reliable; easy to understand; objective and updated, your hospital’s image in the patient’s eyes improves dramatically ! You can then “convert” this online visitor into a real-life patient by encouraging him to get in touch with you !

Similarly, let’s look at the same patient who is being admitted for elective knee replacement surgery. Prior to admission you can send a welcome email , along with a link to your hospital website which has a lot of accurate information on knee replacement surgery, so they know what to expect during their hospital stay. Not only does this help to relieve the anxiety of the patient and his family, they will also be very impressed by your thoughtfulness and patient-centred focus !

This can be automatic and inexpensive - you just need to embed this into your admission process ! It helps your doctors as well and saves them a lot of time , as they do not need to explain the basics once again, since the email has already done this ! You can do this after discharge as well – and this combination of high tech with high touch can be a winning formula ! It also helps to improve your doctor’s efficiency, as these emails reduce phone calls to your doctors , since most routine queries have been proactively answered !

Please email me at malpani@vsnl.com and I'll be happy to provide more information !

When Osama was tracked down, Obama was advised that there were two options to deal with him - a bomb attack; or a finely crafted precise surgical strike using helicopters. Obama quickly figured out that a bomb was too heavy duty to use and would cause a lot of collateral damage. Why use a hammer to kill a fly ?

This is equally true when you want health information. While it's true that google indexes millions of pages and billions of kilobytes, a lot of what google crawls is just rubbish, and the results only end up distracting users; confusing them; and infuriating their doctors . Google's focus is on being comprehensive and regurgitating as many pages as it can find ( which makes sense , because they make their money by showing as many ads as possible).

When you need health information, what you need is reliable trustworthy information which has been screened and tested for its authenticity and readability. The last thing you want to do when you are sick is to wade through pages of garbage. You need a tool which offers you what you need, quickly and efficiently, without wasting your time !

This is exactly where specialised patient education companies such as Healthwise shine. Healthwise provides you with high quality accurate information you can trust - this is all they do, and they do it very well indeed !

Seeing is believing, and if you want to see what "prescription quality information" looks like, when you have a health-related query, please do your next search at Healthwise ! I promise you it will save you a lot of time - and a lot of headaches as well !

" And perhaps more important, doctors who fail to embrace social media risk becoming irrelevant, as more patients flock to the web as a source of health information, rather than endure the inconvenience of a doctor’s office:

Doctors who are not active online risk being marginalized. Facebook and Twitter users, half of whom are under of age of 34, rely on the web for most of their information. As this demographic ages, it’s conceivable that they will consult social media first to answer their health questions."

In the past, senior doctors had an edge over their juniors because of the "grey-beard" syndrome. Times are changing and doctors need to evolve with them ! Patients will usually go online first when they have a health-related problem - and doctors who are not online may soon find that they have become dinosaurs, who can no longer survive !

It's quite interesting to see the attitude some doctors still have towards educating their patients

I just met a friend who is now a senior gynecologist. He told he that he preferred not to provide his patients with information. " I just tell them what I think they need to know ! Otherwise, they ask too many questions and it takes me too much time to explain. It's much easier for me if I just go ahead and treat them - after all, I am the expert ! It's also better for my patients. With too much information, they get confused and do not know what to do ! It's best if I keep it simple - and this way, I can see more patients as well !"

Most doctors got away with this paternalistic attitude for many years - but this was many years ago, , when all the medical knowledge was locked up in medical books and journals which patients could not access or understand.

However, times have changed. Medical information is now freely available on the net - and a smart, determined patient can easily learn as much as he wants about his problem . The truth is that patients have always had and will always have questions about their medical treatment - it's just that some doctors are not empathetic enough to realise this. This is why they lose their patients to other doctors who take a proactive approach towards addressing their patient's queries !

If patients do not get answers from their doctor, they will find answers from somewhere else. And if another doctor provides these, they are quite likely to go to the other doctor.

When doctors do not answer their patients questions, they do both their patients and themselves a disservice. Patients are forced to search for information on their own, and they often find unreliable information from poor quality websites. This misinformation can actually make the doctor's life even harder because he then has to spend a lot of time helping the patient to get rid of their misconceptions.

This is why doctors need to prescribe information - and the best way of doing this is by creating your own website and dispensing information through this !

I feel many Indian NGOs are doing some great work. Unfortunately, they are often strapped for cash because very few people know about their activities. This is why they are often not able to scale up their activities and they remain small, with limited impact.

There are many large-hearted Indians out there who would be happy to provide money to deserving NGOs. However, how do they find out about these ? And which ones are worth funding ?

NGOs need higher visibility and the best way to acquire this is through the internet. As a pilot project, I am going to award free websites to 10 suitable NGOs; and hope that this will help them to get additional visibility, so they can leverage their efforts.

If you run an NGO, or know of one, who you feel will benefit from having a web presence, please ask the Head of the NGO to send me an email.

I need to know basic stuff such as - What does your NGO do ? how do you plan to grow ? How will you make use of your website ?

We will pay a technology company to provide you with a comprehensive website which you will be able to update and run yourself.

This is a guest post from Mr Aditya Patkar, Sales Director, Plus91, in which I am an angel investor.

A doctor today has many opportunities to reach out and touch his patients. Clever technology can help him do so very easily and inexpensively – but many doctors do not take advantage of these simple tools ! Why should you bother ? For one , it makes you popular amongst patients – and will help you become even busier ! Patients will rave about doctors who take the time and trouble to contact them – and this will help you to stand out ! Doing so will also help to educate other patients, who will be happy to offer you their blessings because you have shared your wisdom with them. Finally, contributing to the knowledgebase of the community improves the community you are a part of – and help you become a respected leader in your community !

So what do you need to do?

1. Reach out to many people as possible. The internet lets you update and express your views, either as 160 character bursts on twitter, or as a long thoughtful post on your blog , detailing your experience.

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

Blogging: If you are doing research which you think people should hear about, blog about it ! Many people will find it online as they search for information about their problem , and they will be happy to treat you as a trusted authority if you provide this information on your blog. Go to www.blogger.com and start your own blog !

2. Allow people to contact you: Step one is to get a website. It helps you disseminate information about your services for patients looking for the same. This is not advertising, it’s offering a service to patients who need information and education about their medical problems and treatment options. Patients face many choices and are hampered by a lack of reliable information. On your website, please don’t only talk about yourself ! Rather, tell patients more about what diseases and disabilities you treat, what are the latest treatments, and maybe even offer them a second opinion to help them get the best possible treatment ( even if they do not come to you !)

One of Plus91's missions is that every Indian doctor should have their own website ! Check out what we offer at www.websitefordoctors.in. We will hold your hand and guide you through the entire process to maximize the impact on your patients .

3. Using Software: Modern EMR ( electronic medical software) comes with integrated communications tools which allow you to painlessly and seamlessly contact your patients, either through email or SMSes !

Plus91’s EMR packages allow you to send SMSes to sendalerts, appointment reminders and prescription reminders to your patients !This is a new level of service, and patients will be thrilled to know that you provided automated intelligent alerts to help them get the best medical care ! You can see our products on www.plus91online.com


These are just some pointers on how technology can help you to to interact with your patients – without spending much time or money ! Leverage your time and expertise using modern technology – Plus91 will be happy to help you to do so, so you can delight your patients !