MEDIA and DOCTORS!

Or can we say doctors and media? Any which ways doctor's always Love giving their quotes for various stories which the media often covers. Doctors also love their publicity and they cherish that media knows them by their name. The most important thing which fascinates a doctor is a pic of his case study along with him and story on successful surgery.

The trend of hiring journalists / correspondents specially dedicated to health beat started around 1995s. These correspondents mostly reported human interest stories; they also covered unique case studies / surgeries. Most of these stories require doctors quotes so the story is factually correct.

But interestingly the more quotes start appearing in media on specific diseases / surgeries led to doctors publicity. Readers regarded such doctors as experts in their specialties and start spreading word-of-mouth publicity, thus helping the doctors to gain more patients.

The real boost came when doctors realize this and how it was connected to their business. The doctors also knew ICMRs restrictions for advertisements in Healthcare sector.
What actually started happening is doctors started hiring services of PR Agencies, a new boost in Healthcare scenario!
But when something unregulated starts in any business it leads to lot of chaos.

The important aspect to realize is only publicizing doctors, won't help, it has to be 360 degrees. From free diagnosis camps for patients, to seminars, to doctor patient relation manners & etiquettes training, information articles on diseases and speaking to media on various issues will help in the long run.