Between reading shoulder images and MRIs of the foot and ankle, Dr. Steven Needell can be found managing the Boca Radiology Group's Web site (www.bocaradiology.com). In addition to being the director of musculoskeletal imaging, Needell is the Florida group's Webmaster and helped launch the site about two months ago.
"Boca Radiology Group is dedicated to staying at the forefront of technology, and we recognize the increasing value of establishing a presence on the Internet," Needell said in an email interview. "Public Internet access and exploration will only continue to increase, and we are excited by the tremendous potential the Internet offers us."
Despite the firm grip the Internet now has on everyday life, Needell and Boca Radiology are a rarity among radiologists.
"We don't find as much Internet marketing with radiology as we do with some other specialties. I think the Internet is a powerful tool that many of you have yet to explore," said practice management consultant Karen Zupko (www.karenzupko.com), speaking at the Economics of Diagnostic Imaging symposium in October in Washington, DC.
An informal survey of the 'net seems to uphold Zupko's assessment: A Yahoo! search using the terms "radiology and practice" yielded 45 hits; substitute "orthopedics" for radiology and that number vaults to 35 categories, divided up by state with between one and 12 listings per state.
In an increasingly competitive healthcare environment, the Web can help a practice build name recognition, as well as preference, in both the patient population and among referring physicians, Zupko pointed out.
"We routinely inform our patients about our Web site and have found that it is able to answer many of their questions before and after their procedure," Needell said. "We receive email and phone calls several times a week from enthusiastic patients and physicians."
The Web is just one of the aspects of daily life that has intensified patient demand for speed and convenience, said Henry Soch of Philips Medical Systems of Shelton, CT, at the Washington, DC conference.
"(The Internet) environment is going to create unprecedented expectations on the part of your patients," he explained. "A 45-minute wait in your examining room is going to be intolerable to them."
The Internet has given patients access to more information that can lead to more questions. Directing patients to a practice's site would be one way to help answer those inquiries. Boca Radiology's site, for instance, has a news section with accessible information on lung cancer screening and osteoporosis.
The most crucial element for a successful Web site is that it be user-friendly. The Los Angeles Cardiology Group (www.lacard.com) offers a glossary of medical terms as well as directions to its eight locations with a link to maps. Hamptons Gynecology & Obstetrics in New York (www.hamptonsobgyn.com) uploaded a patient satisfaction survey. Florida Knee & Orthopedic Centers (www.fla-ortho.com) has a secure medical history form that a patient can fill out at home. And at the site for Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi, India, patients can make appointments online (www.apollohospdelhi.com).
"All that information that (patients) are normally asked at the check-in desk, you can allow them to fill out on your site," Soch pointed out. "It shortens the time they spend in your department."
Privacy concerns
When it comes to transmitting medical information over the Web, privacy becomes an issue; secure servers and encryption are two ways to address that. But if security is a major concern, perhaps the best way to handle it is to avoid it altogether.
"If you don't want to get into security issues, then make the interactivity one-way. Patients can download an online questionnaire and then mail it in or bring it to the appointment," suggested Debbie Levitt, president of AsWas, a Web development firm in Massapequa, NY (www.aswas.com).
A Web site also can be used to enhance communication between the practice and referring physicians. Boca Radiology is working toward hooking up its PACS network to the site."Ultimately, our Web site...will serve as a portal for our referring physicians to view not only their patients' reports, but the actual exams themselves," Needell said.
The site for Groover, Christie + Merritt, a Washington, DC radiology group, offers an "Imaging Tutorial" for both practitioners and the public (www.gcmnet.com).
Although practitioners and patients may not always be looking for the same kind of information on a site, addressing both is fine as long as it's an organized effort, Levitt said.
"You don't want to have so much information that it looks like it all just fell out of a journal," said Levitt, who is currently designing two urology sites. "But you can have a site that is very technical and still have laypeople 'get it.' You have to keep it well-organized, especially if you're going to keep replacing information and adding it on."
A clever design, printer-ready documents and plenty of space devoted to basic practice information are some ways to draw users in, Levitt added.
Of course, not everyone is sold on the Web as the ultimate marketing tool. Four years ago, Dr. Steven Brick learned HTML and put up the Groover, Christie + Merritt site. Since then Brick - who is the practice president - hasn't had much opportunity to revamp it.
"It's kind of moldy-looking right now," Brick said. "I'm in the process of working with a designer to update it. I put it up (four years ago) because I wanted to see how it would benefit my practice. I'm not sure I got what I expected in the end."
Brick acknowledges that he has reached patients with the site, but "I'm getting people from all over the place, Los Angeles or England. That doesn't really benefit my practice. I also thought I'd get a lot more input from doctors."
Still, Brick has not given up on his site. He said he could foresee its use down the road for teleradiology. For now, he's concentrating on refocusing the site on patient needs.
"I get questions about specific reports and I'm very careful to explain that I can't make a diagnosis," he explained. "But I will explain what a bulging disc on an MRI means."
"The most common questions I get are from high school students who are trying to find out how to become a radiologist," Brick added. "I think I'm going to have a FAQ section just to handle all of those questions."
By Shalmali Pal
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 8, 1999
