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Educating patients about the diseases as well as the preventive aspects of the same plays a very important role in treatment outcomes. Doctors often find it difficult to invest the required amount of time for patient education. Digital media is a very powerful platform for reaching out to a larger population without putting in too much time. Majority of people search for health-related answers online before contacting their doctors. If the information available on the internet is misleading patients often misinterpret their symptoms or try to manage them on their own. Yet, very few doctors consider social media as an easy and effective platform to educate people on various diseases.
An in-app survey was conducted on WhiteCoats to determine the digital marketing strategies doctors use. A total of 132 doctors from varying specialities participated in the survey that comprised of five questions regarding their presence and perception of digital media.
About 44% of doctors rated their current social media marketing strategies as average (3/5). Only 35% of doctors state that they have a website that focuses on patients and patient education.
Social media is the cheapest and most effective way to help patients understand diseases and their preventive aspects, in our survey around 47% of doctors believed that they do not make effective use of social media.
Majority of the people are accustomed to reading the reviews and feedback online before booking an appointment, but only 34% of the doctors stated that they sometimes took testimonial from their satisfied patients.
Well-trained staffs is a key to running a successful practice when asked whether they involve their front-desk in their digital marketing it was found that around 69% doctors do not involve their staff in their digital marketing practices.
Doctors are increasingly adopting social media for providing accurate and credible information to people. They are now creating dedicated websites and posting on social media with their main focus being patient education. A focused social media strategy, effective use of the social media space, video-based content is key in engaging patients and ensuring successful digital marketing of their practice.
