Throughout time, physicians have relied on a number of different factors to become “known”.  Word of mouth, physician referral, insurance handbook, or a quick thumbing through the yellow pages; these would produce a new patient relationship.

Over time and in a world of overspecialization, the best physician brands become know by by their work.  “Dr. Johnson is the best neurosurgeon in California.”  For those who were seeking what they considered to be better care by a better physician, they would end up at the end of a communications path leading to the best branded physician accessible.

In the age of the Internet, the paths to those brands have grown to excess.  What has become misleading is how the physician brand is being represented.  It can be hard to tell a hack from a da Vinci.  Especially if the hack has a great medical web marketing campaign and the truly talented physician has a web page that his nephew created in 1998.

With the public turning to the Internet as their primary source for information and their primary path to their new physician, it is important to define and present the physician brand from a perspective of integrity.  With a good match between the web brand and work delivered, the web brand will support itself via the community of patients that uphold the brand for the physician.

Here are 8 hints and reminders regarding the physician and their web branding strategy.

1. A great physician brand comes after the patient experience.  The patient experience influences the value of the brand.  The patient experience influences other patients on how to feel about the brand.
2. A great physician brand frequently comes from something unique about the physician or group.  Be sure to define, harness, and leverage that uniqueness in your branding campaign.
3. Keep repeating that YOUR BRAND IS NOT YOUR LOGO.  Think of your logo as shorthand for your brand.  When people see it or hear your name (or name of your practice), what is the emotional response?  The logo/name will trigger that internal association with your brand.  The idea is to create the best experience.  The response to the logo or your name will follow suit.
4. Today’s patients are smart.  They know when they see false or misleading advertising and can pick out the lack of credibility.  Don’t help them by either poor web design or misleading web site elements.  The more you put into how you present yourself on the web, the more patients know you care about their experience.
5. Don’t be afraid to develop the definition of the experience.  How will the experience look and feel from the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to and throughout their office visit?  Build into your medical office culture a consistent defined experience from the web to their feelings long after the office visit.  Build that into the definition of the brand that you’re trying to achieve.
6. Focus on what you do best and include items that you are moving towards.  Sometimes you express everything you can do, which waters down what you do best.  What you do best is really the strongest and biggest branding opportunity.  Use your strengths to lever up the areas of expertise and technology that are on your practice and professional development path.
7. Once you’ve defined, developed, and are executing your web branding strategy, monitor the strategy and be flexible.  Don’t be so flexible that you are always changing everything, but be flexible enough to change what is not working and easily add in new ideas that come up.
8. Always remember that your brand is an experience and then a promise to fulfill that experience again and again.  In the physician practice there are a myriad of opportunities to create a great experience (and repeat).  The toughest but greatest experiences really come down to your patient relationship and the service (care) you provide.

So be honest about what you do, define it, design it, execute, improve it, and leverage your personal brand path from your medical web site to (and throughout) new patient experience.

By midlife, approximately half of the population will have experienced hemorrhoids. This sometimes painful condition results from an increase in pressure inside the veins of the rectum. The common causes are constipation, pregnancy, childbirth, obesity, sitting for long periods, heavy lifting and diarrhea. Internal hemorrhoids occur inside the lower rectum and in many cases can’t be seen or felt. However, in some instances can push through the anal opening, resulting in a prolapsed, or protruding hemorrhoids. External hemorrhoids occur as bulges or lumps around the anus and due to the sensitive nerve fibers in this area, these enlarged veins are often painful, especially when sitting. Fortunately, a brief and painless procedure is available now and will end your discomfort for good.

Bay Area Gastroenterologist, Dr. David Shields of Palo Alto, now offers the CRH O’Regan System™, also referred to as Hemorrhoid Banding, is considered the “gold standard” for the treatment of hemorrhoids. This minimally invasive outpatient procedure is performed in his offices and scores a 99.1% success rate. This method, unlike traditional banding techniques (that use a metal-toothed clamp to grasp the tissue), Dr. Shields uses a gentle suction device, reducing the risk of pain and bleeding. This method has a ten-fold reduction in complications compared to traditional banding and recovery time is dramatically accelerated. Following this new method of hemorrhoid banding, it is recommended that you rest at home for the remainder of the day and resume full activity the next day.

The banding procedure works by cutting off the blood supply to the hemorrhoid, which causes the hemorrhoid to shrink and fall off (typically within a day or so). Once the hemorrhoid is gone, the affected area usually heals in a week or two. The CRH O’Regan System is applicable for approximately 90% of all hemorrhoid patients and only the most severe cases will require a more aggressive surgery (hemorrhoidectomy), which is another procedure offered by Dr. Shields.

Before opening his private practice, Dr. Shields served as the Director of Endoscopy at Stanford University Medical Center. He continues to enjoy actively teaching at Stanford and has been recognized with an “Outstanding Clinical Faculty Award”. Dr. Shields performs procedures at varying locations depending upon your insurance. The majority of procedures are performed in the comfort of The Palo Alto Endoscopy Center. Patients with Medicare are performed primarily at Stanford Hospital and some at El Camino Hospital. If hospitalization is required he admits his patients at Stanford Hospital.

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