Often the news in Europe comes from overseas and it seems
that even in the digital health sector the USA is preparing to change our
method of choosing the doctor , bringing online medical reviews to a prominent
role .
In the United States there are some well-established
companies that allow potential online patients to get in touch with specialized
doctors every day, are you wondering how? Through specialist sites specifically
dedicated to choosing the doctor online . Soon this news in the field of
digital healthcare will also land in Europe.
More power to online
doctor reviews with millennials
The online medical reviews are highly regarded by any user
in search of a health professional. The data are clear: according to the
Institute for Healthcare Policy 94% of internet users who visited a medical
review site are satisfied . The '85% of patients can not relax if at least 10%
of the reviews a doctor has no minimum one star .
In short, in a world that communicates through social networks and that increasingly surfs the web, as
many as 1 in 3 patients entrust specific medical review sites.
With the times advancing, staying cut off from the world of
online evaluations seems to be a real failure sentence for any professional.
But how will this evolution of digital healthcare take place ? The United
States shows us what Europe's closest future can be in this area.
News and specialist
medical sites arrive from the USA
The reputation of a doctor in the USA is based above all on
his online reviews in the various healthcare sites. You got it right, the
United States has several portals where the various health professionals are
filed and reviewed in order to make patient choice very agile. Here are what
the main American portals for online doctor reviews are called and how they
work :
1. Yelp
Yelp is a site born in 2004, which over time has turned into
a real review site that collects millions of opinions including many related to
doctors and health clinics. The reviews on this site are evaluated through an
algorithm, which guarantees completeness and reliability.
2. Google My Business
Google My Business is a simple and free Google tool, widely
used in the USA, which includes Google search and Google Maps. With this tool
it is possible to verify your own activity and therefore allow users to review
it. The user can leave from 1 to 5 stars and a caption in which he talks about
his experience, while you can also insert photos of your medical activity.
3. Facebook for
Business
Facebook for Business allows you to share videos, posts and
photos from your medical clinic. There are as many as 1.31 billion active
accounts on this social media and in the USA every business wins its slice of
space on this platform. Your presence on Facebook is essential for interacting
with patients and in the United States social networks are a real platform for
communicating with the patient .
Read Here: Digital
Marketing services for Healthcare
4. WebMD
WebMD is a site with numerous medical information that
houses a directory of doctors with a lot of name, specialization and position.
The doctors are visible here both in alphabetical order and on a map, to
facilitate the patient in finding the clinic. On WebMD doctors obtain a vote
between 1-5, established with strict criteria dictated by the reviews.
5. Healthgrades
Healthgrades is a site visited by more than 30 million people
per month, providing useful reviews on doctors, clinics and healthcare
professionals. Also on this site we find an evaluation expressed from 1 to 5
stars based on different elements such as the courtesy of the staff, the
waiting time, the time spent with the patient and much more.
6. RateMDs.com
RateMDs is a US site full of reviews on doctors, as it has
over 2 million real opinions on health services in its database. On this site
you can express your opinion on four categories: the staff, the availability,
the punctuality and the knowledge of the doctor.
The first signs of
change in digital healthcare in USA
Healthcare has increasingly turned towards the patient and
in the coming years this change will be increasingly evident. This is a digital
healthcare innovation that increasingly privileges the collection of online
medical reviews, in order to provide a complete picture to the patient when
choosing a health professional.
A reality that in USA has already started to appear due to
the slowness of the public health system and the increasing participation of
private doctors in the world of the web.
In USA 200 million searches per month are carried out on the
web relating to the theme of health, a very important fact that must be
exploited to guarantee a service addressed to all potential patients.
Precisely for this reason, several portals are also emerging
aimed at encouraging reviews of online doctors and booking various health
services directly on the web.
Potential patients can, on these sites, choose a
doctor based on his specialization, the location of the study and reviews. Here
are some of the main websites that are introducing this healthcare innovation
in our country:
Medicalbox.
The start-up Medicalbox was born in Italy from the idea of
two brothers from Parma. This site allows patients of registered doctors to
make reservations, pay visits and write reviews on the service received. In
short, an all-Italian reality that takes the example from the USA to bring
doctors closer to the needs of the patients of the 2000s.
What is evaluated in
online medical reviews
The reviews of online doctors in the USA have very clear
parameters for evaluating the service offered by a healthcare facility. In
particular, some of the fundamental reference values required in health
review sites to evaluate a doctor are:
·
The overall experience of the patient in the
study
·
The availability of the doctor and staff
·
The environment inside the studio
·
Punctuality of the doctor and waiting times
·
Friendliness of the staff
·
Communication level
·
Effectiveness of treatment
·
Billing and administration