Medical Website Feature

The Doctor Is in - 21 Tips to Create an Ask-the-Doctor Feature for Your Website by Kevin P. Richardson, President, MedRocket, Inc.

About the Author - Kevin Richardson is a healthcare marketing consultant, executive coach, and writer who provides fresh perspectives and expertise about online healthcare marketing. Sign up for his FREE "MedRocket Ezine" newsletter and discover how to profitably attract and serve healthcare consumers online. Subscribe at http://www.medrocket.com.

doctor_portrait Remember the Peanuts cartoon features where "Doctor" Lucy doles out misguided psychiatric advice to Charlie Brown for a nickel?

Well at dozens of health Web sites today, "The Doctor Is In," too. But now it's a real doc -- delivering real advice, to real patients who are concerned about their health and the health of loved ones.

Compelling Ask-the-Expert Benefits

Ask-the-Doctor features (or Ask-the-Nurse, dietician, or whatever expert you chose) are a great way to drive traffic to your Web site and encourage repeat visits. At the successful ahealthyme.com Web site of Massachusetts Blue Cross and Blue Shield (http://www.ahealthyme.com), they've even created entire television campaigns around their "Ask Dr. Anne" feature.

"People like to click on my face," says Dr. Anne.

Why all the push for Ask-the-Doc? Because it works -- if done right. Effectively, these sites place a welcome, caring human face on their Web site. Not only can it build a loyal following of Web surfers, but it can also encourage referrals and reinforce the need to seek professional medical advice.

Tips and Pitfalls to Expert Success

When your hospital or health organization considers implementing this type of ask-the-expert feature, here are 21 tips (and a bonus tip!) to ensure its success and avoid some of the pitfalls that inevitably pop up.

It's a commitment. Visitors will become frustrated if you promote the service and don't follow through. Everyone who submits a question should receive an e-mail reply (see # 4 and # 5). Questions and answers should be posted at least weekly. This is not the kind of Web content that runs on autopilot. It requires someone to manage the feature, corral the experts, and post the questions and responses on a weekly basis.

Share the load. "Recruit a panel of doctors, nurses, or other experts to share the load" says, Eileen Early, RN, BSN, HealthLink Editor (http://healthlink.mcw.edu/dear-dr-becky) at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "It can be difficult to find doctors and nurses who are willing to commit to a column on a long-term basis. It's helpful to use a group with varied areas of expertise so you can direct questions to those most likely to have a ready answer and provide a quick turnaround time."

Your experts are real. So show us. Unlike our favorite faux psychiatrist Lucy, your experts are trained professionals with significant education and experience in their medical disciplines. Show us the human side of these experts by posting a photo and some biographical information. Then help demonstrate credibility by giving some of the clinical and research interests and background of the clinician.

A Web form is better than e-mail. The most effective way to request and submit questions to the expert is through a simple Web form. These forms protect the e-mail addresses of physicians and other experts from misuse. They allow you to route copies of the questions to several people if needed, can log questions to a file on the server, and also create an automatic reply to the submitter. Form processing scripts abound in case you don't have one on your site. Check out The Perl Archive at http://www.perlarchive.com and Script Search at http://www.scriptsearch.com .

Customize the e-mail response. The reply-mail that the Web server returns after a person submits a question is a boilerplate response from the expert. Use it as an opportunity to thank the person for their contribution and remind them to check back to see if their question has been answered. If the expert will not reply to every email, or every question is not answered, then reinforce this in a friendly way. If you offer an alert service (see the Bonus Tip #22), then this is a terrific place to promote it.

Checks and balances: Peer review. Eileen Early at HealthLink recommends that at least one other medical professional (or a good researcher) review the draft of the expert answer for accuracy. Even experts have their "off" days. Peers can also clarify a response, explain terminology in lay terms, or add information that the expert might have overlooked.

Clean up the answers by a good writer/editor. In order to take some of the pressure off of the "experts" to answer questions in a timely manner, Eileen Early has found it helpful to provide a writer or editor to polish the expert's response. If this is the case, the experts can even dictate answers and send them to the writer or editor to draft. An answering machine can serve the same purpose.

Which flavor of Ask-the-Doctor? You'll need to decide what type of ask-the-doctor feature you'll offer. By this, I mean, Will you reply to every email personally? Or will you select a handful of questions from all those submitted, answer them, and post them on the Web site?

Here's another slant: Some sites have taken the Ask-the- Doctor feature to a higher level by operating it as a fee- for-service approach. The site MyPhysicians.com (http://www.MyPhysicians.com)is one example. They offer personalized answers from board-certified specialty physicians via private e-mail for a small fee.

Some hospitals and physician practices might not have a problem with this; though yours might. The question usually arises as to whether this type of interaction constitutes a doctor-patient relationship and all of the legal ramifications that come with it.

Make them stars. Your experts will become a star, just like Anne Meneghetti, M.D. of "Ask Dr. Anne" fame at aHealthyMe.com (http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/dranne.bio.jhtml). Promote and publicize your experts internally and externally. It's good for their ego (doctor's have egos, right?), and also great for your organization.

Establish guidelines. Right from the start, work with your panel of experts to define some guidelines for the types of questions that can be answered. Some questions just can't be answered without examining the patient. Determine the depth of the answers and where to draw the line in dispensing medical information online. It's also a good practice to draft a disclaimer and terms of service. This should reinforce that the feature is not a replacement for medical care of a physician.

Promote off-line. Use all the marketing vehicles at your disposal to promote Ask-the-doctor. Run articles in your health newsletters, introduce it with newspaper advertisements, radio spots and sponsorships, health fairs, and posters or flyers placed around your facility and in the doctors' offices. Send news releases about this new online community service.

Promote online. If you have an e-mail newsletter or opt-in email list, use it for promotion. Feature a banner or box on your site's main page. Consider a special pop-up window on your Web site to draw attention to the feature.

Omit personal info. If you are posting answers to questions on line, then be sure to omit personal information to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of patients and Web site visitors. You might attribute the question to "Mary of Anytown, Massachusetts".

Check your privacy policy. When you launch the feature, be sure to update your privacy policy to cover this type of health information exchange.

How to post the answers. There's probably a dozen ways to post the questions and answers. Many types of CGI scripts can be adapted for this purpose. Or, you may decide to do it manually and enter the Q&A on static Web pages by hand. You can present the questions and answers through a bulletin board system or form, through a frequently asked questions list, as a searchable database, or in grouped topic pages. More CGI resources can be found at The CGI Resource Index (http://cgi.resourceindex.com).

Have backup questions. Don't ever assume an answer will get back to you in time for deadline, says Eileen Early at HealthLink. "Always have a backup file of questions and answers at the ready."

Use a teaser. Run the most recent question as a news item on your home page. Link to the appropriate section on your site to find the answer.

Create a column. Amortize all of your online efforts by proposing a regular Ask-the-Doctor column to your local newspaper. The resource box at the end of the column can drive traffic to your Web site and help solicit additional questions for Ask-the-Doctor.

Track your questions. Parlay frequently asked "hot topics" into feature articles for newsletters and media initiation proposals. Topics can also influence the type of content you regularly add to your Web site or run in your e-mail newsletter.

The Doctor is in -- Live! Occasionally host a live online chat featuring the panel of experts, post the chat transcript to the ask the expert area of your Web site. Promoting the online availability of one of your health experts also can create a flurry of media attention. Take the technological pressure off and consider using a site that's designed for hosting on-line chat-type events. You can create a private chat room for your event at Yahoo (http://chat.yahoo.com).

Referrals anyone? In your Web form used to submit the questions, consider asking if the person is local to your facility. If so, then you could include a low-key message to encourage referrals or promote your physician referral service.

Bonus Tip: Start an E-mail Alert Service. Out of sight out of mind. So create an e-mail list for people who want to receive highlights of the most recent questions that your expert has answered. Send out this broadcast e-mail weekly, biweekly, or monthly and include links to the section of your Web site where they can find the answers. This keeps the Ask-the-Doctor feature (and your Web site) fresh in the minds of Web surfers.

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