Why should doctors market themselves?

This is what we say most often as they get references through word-of-mouth publicity.

But only doctor understands the reason behind it. After completing specializing most of the doctors attach themselves to various different hospitals as consultants and start their own clinic. The doctors believe this is the only route they can reach out to patients and market themselves. Well I am afraid as this is just one route of strategy!

There are many other ways of marketing and promoting their own brand and services, here I have tried listing a few which could help:

1. Peer-to-peer marketing: It is very important for a doctor to inform the GPs and hospitals about services offered. This is from where most recommendations will happen. A doctor’s recommendation is worth more than patients references.


2. Patients follow-up: Most of the doctors hardly follow-up with their patients well being or enquiring about follow-up visits. Also the charges of follow-up visits should be revised, like doctor charging Rs. 200 on first visit should charge Rs. 20 for follow-up visit and these patients should have different appointment schedule. The doctor can also send a get well card to the patient.


3. Delivery of medicines: The doctor should tie-up with nearest medical store for delivery of medicines. This will ensure that medicines reach the patients and a service the patients will cherish. This will also benefit the pharma store.


4. Suggesting medicines: Lot of patients hate taking medicines, the doctor can discuss with the patients and recommend only those medicines which are required. This will also ensure that patients will take the dosage.

There are many ways which can help the medical practitioners to market themselves, but most important is they should be compassionate and humble towards their patients.

Relevance of social media for Doctors in India

It is important for doctors to market their service through all available tools/mediums and social media is one of the tools.
Here I have tried to list down various types of marketing tools used by healthcare professionals in the order of there importance:

1. Word-of-mouth
2. Public lectures or seminars
3. Being a visiting consultant with more hospitals
4. Featuring in media stories
5. Websites
6. Participating in free check-up camps
7. Giving lectures at CMEs
8. Social Media

The above comprehensive list gives a good amount of publicity for the doctors to portray their services to their customers (patients, media, doctors, etc). With the advent of new technology and informed patients it has become prerogative for doctors to address using new mediums and be connected with there patients.

Now looking this scenario from Indian context the doctors are quite bearish accepting these new mediums. They still think and believe in the traditional form of marketing i.e. Word-of-mouth. The new generation of doctors are to a large extent aware about new ways to market themselves.

Doctors now are aware about treating their patients, keeping a stock of disease awareness brochures in d clinic, are available on mobile and email, don’t mind debating with patients and updated with latest developments in d medical science field.

Social media through freely available there is investment of time and this will be managed by trained Social Media Optimisation (SMO) consultants.

The SMO creates and helps to design various templates like account on twitter, facebook, wordpress, linkedin, plaxo, connect doctors , etc. Also creating the doctors website and aligning with these different social networking platforms. All these platforms will then be used by doctor to inform his patients about his knowledge, case studies, booking of appointments, etc.

Below is a small eg to showcase how social media can become a boon for healthcare professionals and doctors, check out on - mashable.com

Doctors do not know how to market themselves - Jagdeep Kapoor

Jagdeep Kapoor, Chairman and Managing Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants Pvt Limited On how doctors should market themselves

How can a doctor market himself, when advertising is prohibited for the medical community?
So what if doctors are not allowed to advertise themselves? Advertising is just a minor part of marketing, and there are various ways a doctor can market himself. I want to debunk the myth that marketing is unethical. Ethical marketing is permissible. Doctors can market themselves within the purview of the existing prohibition.

What brand mantras do you propagate, keeping in mind the restrictions?
We advocate simple and practical tips to doctors for improving their marketing skills. Firstly, we stress on relationship building with the patient, which we call relationship marketing. ‘Sambandh’ is better than ‘sab-bandh’. A doctor needs to build a personal relationship with the patient by making minor efforts like remembering the name of the patients, writing the name correctly and being polite to them.
Most doctors get irritated when simple piece of information is asked. They behave as if the patient is wasting his time, by asking him that question. A doctor must not treat the patient as an imbecile. These days most of the urban and educated patients before going to a doctor are aware of the nature of the disease, by dint of the internet. The patient should go back not with scare but with care.
Secondly, to build a big brand name use a small brand name. Research has shown that small brand names do better than interminably long names. If a doctor has a long name, which the patient cannot even pronounce, then the doctor needs to shorten his name. Same holds true for hospital and clinic name. Thirdly, the doctor needs to make himself visible. We hear of doctors who are good at work and practicing for decades, with not too many people knowing about him. This is because the doctor has not made a conscious effort to make himself known through word of mouth. This hurdle can be overcome by getting involved in social work. If a doctor participates in honorary work, then people come to know him and that is how he becomes more popular.
Lastly, intangible is as important as tangible. Show the patient that you care for him, by uttering encouraging words, and even patting him. Be sensitive and sympathetic while informing a patient about serious illness and when breaking the death news to relatives.

Can you give us an overview of Samsika Marketing Consultants?
The first strategic marketing consultancy in India, Samsika is the catalyst that helps corporations grow and make their mark in the market. The complexities of the marketplace are Samsika’s greatest challenges and to meet them, Samsika offers its exclusive service. Being the only specialist marketing strategy consultancy in the country, Samsika is fully equipped on all aspects of brand building, whether it is advertising or public relations, market or media research. The Samsika team works closely with clients, steering, guiding, advising and pushing the brand’s graph to an upward incline. Our brand mantras have been penned in three books- "24 Brand Mantras" and "Brand Serve-31 Customer Service Prescriptions" and "Brand Naamkaran".

Are Indian doctors more insensitive and curt, in comparison with their western counterpart?
We cannot generalise about Indian doctors. Even if Indian doctors are revered and given the status of demi-gods, they definitely do not know how to market themselves. At the reception, when patients enquire about the report, it is common practice that receptionists reply curtly. Some even say "What do you want the report immediately. How is that possible? You just gave your sample now." Why cannot the patient be replied politely? Why would the patient be made to feel undeserving, when he is paying such a hefty sum? Indian doctors need to come down from the pedestal that they seat, segregating themselves from the patient.

Has there been a change in the attitude of doctors over the years?
Yes, in the last two-three years there has been a positive change. A research conducted by Samsika which involved 1900 service providers from seven different industry in 2001-2002 reflects the change. It shows that customers are looking for care, world class treatment and sensitivity of the service provider. In healthcare, the change can be attributed to the emphasis shifting from cure to care.

Sourced from # expresshealthcaremgmt

Crisis in Healthcare industry

As this sector deals with life - every life saved translates into big publicity and every life lost translates into lot of negative publicity very difficult to erase.

Crisis in this sector is usually classified into the following
1. Death of patient
2. Sexual harassment charges
3. Medicine overdose
4. Duplicate drug

There are many situations where crisis can take place, but above mentioned are few of the important ones.

Incase of any crisis the thumb rule is:
1. It is very important to understand the crisis, talk to all the parties involved.
2. Inform the spokesperson and people affected to maintain a common statement for media. In the meant time setup an enquiry committee.
3. Keep media informed about the latest reports only after approval.
4. Get assistance of legal department/consultants.
5. Understand what media wants and diplomatically solve all the queries.
6. There are many aspects to deal with crisis so it is necessary to hire a communications agency.

Here I will quote a case study to better understand crisis
Molestation charges against male doctor by female patient during checking and no female attendant is nearby. And the doctor is not guilty, but how to prove it?

What, I have highlighted is an extreme crisis situation which can tarnish the image of the doctor as well as of the hospital. Here, it is important to understand the doctors’ side and the patients’ side of the story. Can schedule meeting with a psychiatrist of both the parties, whose reports can help to understand the reasons behind such incidence. The legal dept and the hospitals spokesperson should keep all channels open and interact with the media (the information shared with the media should be approved by the mgt). As far as possible the culprit should not speak to media and have faith in the hospitals management. If the patient is wrong their will be loopholes in her story which can surface during interrogation. It might happen that the patient was sexually starved and was trying to advance towards the doctor and he might have objected resulting in this claim. The other possibility can be that doctor was checking her heart beats and by mistake touched her breast. Only after discussions this type of case can be solved.

Once the case is solved both the parties (doctor & patient) should speak to media and convey the right message. Keeping media informed helps to gain positive respect from media which helps in the long run.

Why doctors should opt for vernacular media?

Well, everybody knows that we require treatment from doctors as we grow older. It is also known fact that most old/aged people prefer vernacular media or newspapers, rather than any other media. Even the people late in 40s prefer vernacular media to keep themselves updated happenings. This can also be found from a small survey done at the doctors own clinic, where the doctor’s receptionist can ask the patients about which types of newspapers they read.

Vernacular media/publications are more reader oriented and they have more editorial content than their English counter-part. The vernacular publications provide the readers a taste of their own and culture. They give have special sections for readers on culture and old age medicines/therapies.

The vernacular media has lots of space for health news. As a matter of fact the vernacular media content is more for the reader to use, so they have a dedicated section for health and wellbeing related news.
It is quite easy for doctors to get featured in vernacular media as they have very limited amount of news to feature. They are most happy when any doctor promises them to provide a series of articles. A series of articles in vernacular publication better than on of small quote in mainline English media.
A doctor can easily establish a good rappo with editor or the chief of bureau of the particular vernacular publication. With this the doctors can pitch him to come on the advisory board for health news for the publication; this will help to get featured in the health pages. The publication benefits from having a doctor journalist on board and the doctor benefits news coverage.

Disease BRANDING !

Interesting to note, the healthcare industry works in reverse manner. Actually the main reason being, restrictions on advertising in this industry. While, it is also been argued that the Indian consumers hardly get influenced by Pharma Drug / Product advertisements, doctors promoting advts, etc. With the advent of mass media and information age, the consumer has become knowledgeable enough to decide. Now the consumer is the king coz they take their own decisions. In such scenario promoting products becomes very difficult, add to it the launch of more products in the same category creates a very competitive environment for the products/brands to survive.
So then what can be the right medium to promote / publicise Healthcare products?
These products are often managed by Product Managers more experienced in marketing and armed with MBAs. They think only on Rol, exceptionals think about MAR-COM (Marketing & Communication).

It is important to promote the disease category, brand the diseases and inform the consumers about diseases. Some of the important diseases which enjoy Brand status in the market are listed below:

1. Breast Cancer
2. AIDS
3. Bird Flu
4. Headache
5. Sore eyes (Conjuntitis)
6. Heart Attack
7. Dog bite (Rabies)
8. Diabetes Day
9. Blood cancer (Leukemia)

Consumers are aware about these above diseases and its effects. They are empowered with knowledge to understand the symptoms, asking for help, diagnosis and treatment. Mass media gets the credit to promote among the patients/ consumers. Patients often debate with Doctors on possible treatments for these diseases.

The media informs consumers / patients and doctor answers queries, it is a two way process, which creates a lasting impact in the minds of consumers. Branding diseases also helps to create awareness resulting in more patients and diagnosis. Early diagnosis helps to provide early treatment, saving the patients lives.

Now, the time has come for ICMR to soften of restrictions which they had laid.
I won't be surprised if tomorrow patients start performing diagnosis on themselves and consult with the doctor online for help...

Publicity of CMEs

Continuous Medical Education, in short CME forms an important part in a doctor’s career. They begin their career attending CMEs which is essential to update their knowledge and end up themselves as speakers at CMEs. According to ICMR a doctor has to attend a particular no. of CMEs per year to upgrade themselves on latest developments in their area of specialization.

Informing media about CMEs and getting publicity for the same is very difficult or just next to impossible using the traditional methods of Public Relations. Doctors & clients often demand media publicity for such programs.

I agree pitching for stories and inviting media for it, is very difficult, but possibility cannot be ruled out. The PR consultant can take few steps to understand the CME:

1. Meet the concerned doctor and understand everything related to the CME, its benefits for Doctors, Patients and Society.
2. Get all the details from Client on this CME like schedule, speakers, topics of discussion, case study presentation, etc.
3. Speak to other well-known and established doctors practicing in this area of specialization and understand the CMEs importance from their perspective.
4. Scan and track online (internet) for news featuring these doctors quotes, to understand the area of specialisation of medicine.
5. Check whether any news is available on that particular specialization of medicine and related to the CME.
6. Source unique case studies from the concerned doctor, which will prove helpful to pitch to media.
7. Now draft a note based on all the info available and sought approval from the client.
8. Based on this available information prepare a strategy for media coverage.
9. Pitch to media (preferably meet media personally) and discuss this story with them. E.g. pitch to two mainline and two vernacular publications for stories. It is quite easy to invite two mainline pubs for an interaction with the concerned doctor. For vernacular and other media press release can be disseminated.
10. Invite at least three trade media publications to attend this event.
11. Post the event get a small brief on all the topics discussed and presented. Also get the presentations. Pitch to all the trade media publications based on the info available.
12. Also send this detailed information to all the doctors who were unable to attend this CME.

A Communication Consultants job is not only to get coverage but also inform all the stakeholders. The hospitals newsletter should contain information on such CMEs which could later be sent to Health correspondents of publications as reference material. Mailing such newsletters also highlights the healthcare provider’s initiative to upgrade knowledge and inform about new developments.

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.

Importance of COMMUNICATION in Healthcare

Every industry has realised the importance of communication. The constitution itself proclaims Right for Information. This same stands true in Healthcare scenario. But their is a difference, because a small mistake in Healthcare Communication can create a huge crisis. Healthcare is related to Wellbeing, Life, Health, basically connected to us HUMANS. Hence entitles for utmost care in communication.

The Healthcare sector has realised this and to the birth of specialised communication consultants like Bioquest, Imprimis Life Therapy, Sorento Healthcare, Watermelon advertising, etc. It is rightly said "Need is the Mother of Invention", so it is important to understand this sector companies, their offerings and briefs. These specialised consultants have resources trained and experienced to understand the nitty gritties, issues, Government policies, Information on new innovations, discoveries, etc.

In Indian scenario Healthcare Communication is mostly managed by experienced resources, but it still lacks the understanding coz doctors themselves are not involved. The international trend involves doctors coz they bring with them the understanding on those Healthcare subjects/issues.

India lacks Healthcare professionals, so it is very difficult to involve them as resources in the business of Communication. Now, what can be the probable solution to this problem of resources?

According to my suggestion the Healthcare Communication Consultants can use experienced Medical representatives as advisers. They are lots of Medical Representatives working for different Pharmaceutical companies, Lab automation manufacturers, etc. Medical Representatives interact with doctors daily and equipped with information on specific diseases, they also have understanding on Healthcare issues and policies. Medical representatives are the marketing executives of the Pharma companies and also their Brand Ambassadors who often meet the Doctor’s (Clients).

It is also important to take help from KPOs working in Healthcare sector coz, they are the people who conduct surveys, prepare reports on diseases and drugs, which are then shared with the key doctor’s. This helps the doctor’s to get better understanding about the products/ drugs.
But, taking into account ICMRs (Indian Council of Medical Research) liberal policies in this era, lot of Healthcare companies are investing to develop communication strategy, to differentiate itself from the competition. This industry is also experiencing lot of lobbying through govt associations, media and policy makers, so the portfolio of the Communication consultants has also grown or increased. It is difficult to predict how big Healthcare Communication industry will grow. But the Indian Healthcare Industry is expected to grow @ 12% annually taking the total worth of this industry to US $25 billion (approximately Rs. 1, 00,313 crores) by 2010.

Brand categories, rather than Brand products

For long, the Pharma Company’s have been promoting their products, which only influenced doctors, chemists and people connected to the industry. No matter how hard the companies tried they were hardly able to address their target audience. With the entry of more Pharma companies, National & International, and increase in competition the need to differentiate from the clutter of products has risen. The questions product managers are always hunting, how should a Pharma company communicate their target audience on products?

The Pharma companies need to target their audience directly. The patients/ consumers in this new age are a lot informed. They know what they need and how to get it. Now the Pharma Company’s communication should be directly to its consumers through information about the diseases, about symptoms, etc.

The new age marketing will be on diseases category development, mass awareness about disease symptoms, effects about a particular deficiency, online forum, support group meetings, publicize disease specific docs, disease information brochures, etc. The Pharma companies now need to communicate the masses and KOLs. Also in this information age specific day related to the disease needs to be publicized with the help of KOLs, media and events. Some of the days which can be publicised are

1. World Heart Day
2. Breast Cancer Awareness Day
3. Hepatitis Awareness Day
4. World Anti- Tobacco day

These days inform the masses about the diseases and symptoms. Resulting in patients asking the doctor for more information. The doctor answers the queries of patients and gives information brochures. The consumer then for further information visits the website, created for that specific purpose and loaded with all the relevant information. This is new age marketing which involves the doctors and patients.

This also helps to promote the brand further by the same patients who become the Brand Ambassadors of the information, by spreading word-of-mouth publicity. The reason behind this is most consumers once they acquire information, they become knowledgeable and talk about it to the people they meet about the disease.
Now the Pharma companies have to be better informed because the consumer is empowered with knowledge. The Pharma companies are trying to realize this, but still are undecided on the strategy. It's high time they realize this and change their strategy, be more informative and mass oriented.