A little information goes along way...Power of SMS

A little information goes a long way...Power Of SMSI write this post today, not as a LiveHospital personnel, but as a mother, as a consumer. I have a son under 5 years, to whom we need to give pulse polio drops whenever the program comes to our city. We should be grateful to the local NGOs, municipal government and other local bodies who are involved in delivering this program right in our neighbourhood. But as happens on a Sunday, if we dont step out of the house, we sometimes dont come to know at all if there is a pulse polio day in our neighbourhood. A lot of times we are confused if there is pulse polio on that day, because we-heard-it-from-somewhere but are not sure. If, as a mother, I could get an SMS from some local body about the pulse polio day, I would be sure and I will also not forget to take my son there. The local bodies can register me for this service alongwith my son's date of birth. So the messages can automatically stop when my son reaches 5 years of age.This simple SMS will help me as a parent as I receive that information right in my mobile phone. And thus it will the pulse polio program in increasing compliance.


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How to have your dental clinic's name appear in Google first page

It is important for dental clinics in India to have their name appear in Google's search in the first page. Why is this important ? People are searching for good dentist in their locations. A user may type 'Bangalore Dentist'   or  'Lucknow Dentist'.  If the dental clinic does not appear in the first page of Google then the clinic looses the customer.  There is a whole field called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which is making your website appear on the first page of Google. There is a simpler option to start with. Register your name in Google Places and chances are that your clinic name may appear in the first page of Google. There are many  directory services in India which will help customers to discover a dental clinic online, but Google search remains the number one. People use Google more than any services. Hence it becomes important to work on improving your ranking in Google. We have created simple steps on how you can register yourself at Google places. This will not take more than 10mins to register yourself. You can find the link at    How to add your business in Google Places


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How can you become one of the top dentists of your area

How can you become one of the top dentists of your areaAs a dentist you work hard. You keep running your practice. On many of the weekends you go and attend training to keep yourself  updated with latest developments. What else could you do to improve your practice and attract more patients. Leverage the power of Internet Your neighborhood is in internet. Your patients are all on FB and Google. Following are the simple ways  to connect with your patients and attract new patient to your practice. Build a FaceBook Page This is simple and most dentist have FB pages. Is that enough ? No having a FB page is the first step.  You need to add content so as to attract people. If there is a good content, audiences will come like bees to a honey.The content could be as simple as “How to take care of your children’s teeth” or “Will root canal treatment be painful?” Write a Blog There are many free blogging sites like blogger. Have your own website Our recommendation is that start with a free website. You can get a free website from Google. Again the key point to remember is that you need to build content on your website to attract people. Run FaceBook Ads or Google Ads Both of them are very simple to use. The power of FB ads is that you could target to show your clinic ad to a very targeted audience. For example you can show your  dental practice FB ad to people who are in Thane and are between age 30 and 40


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Why doctors make so many mistakes and How information technology can solve it ?

This  blog post by Sanjeev does a brilliant analysis on  why doctors make so many mistakes.Let me quote what he has said.The main reason why this continues to happen is because doctors (and economists) don't usually get feedback. The patient who is diagnosed wrongly simply never comes back, and goes to another doctor. So the doctor thinks he has cured the patient, but the patient was not cured, and will never return. And when a patient DOES provide feedback (as I've provided to one of my eye doctors), the doctor is so stunned that he doesn't learn. This is true. There is no effective feedback in the current scenario. Information technology can provide a solution. What is required is an EMR system to have mechanism to capture voice of the customer. But there is still a challenge. If you do not like the  doctor's treatments and  you have stopped visiting him then there is no way you will give him  feedback online.  This may work for hospital chains where the hospital management will value honest feedback, as it can rate the work of its staff.  But for the many of hospitals and doctors found in Indian  neighbourhood  this will not work, unless the doctor or hospital really want to hear honest feedback.People may complain on various portals  but complaining is different than giving honest  feedback.This can be only solved by incentivising honest feedback. There could be various ways.  It could be by offering a free check-up. The key is that a feedback mechanism will help a doctor and hospital tremendously. A EMR along with tweaking of the current processes in a health care institute can go a long way in receiving honest feedback. If people see a health care institute valuing  honest feedback then they will still have a positive opinion, even if the treatment has not worked for them.


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What if every interaction with a hospital or doctor in India becomes educational ?

What if every interaction with a hospital or doctor in India becomes educational ? What if the hospital or doctor starts empowering you to know more about your condition ? Is it possible ? Is it possible in India. Sure it is.


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Too many dentist in India but there are not enough teeth to extract

There are too many dentist in India says the report  http://www.dnaindia.com but there are not enough teeth to extract.  This means there will be severe competition among dentist to attract patients. Let me also add one more dimension- your customer is also getting more educated via internet.  He is going to get more demanding.Competition is good. It brings the best out of  every one. Dentist in India have to adopt  information technology. They would have to start doing brand building and marketing. I know these are still wrongly considered as unethical, but the reality is there are no options. It  will be good to use the power of web and information technology to your advantage.We at  www.livehospital.net can help you in adopting IT in a phased manner. Please reach us at vishal.singh@livehospital.net or rasmi.singh@livehospital.net 


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Dental Clinic Assistants - Yes They Can

In my meetings with dentists, dentists have many concerns regarding the succes of a dental software in their clinics. One of the topmost concerns that dentists in India have is that their assistants will not be able to use the software. The dentists dont want to be doing appointment booking and dental records entry themselves all the time.  I agree that dentists cannot be spending all his time in using the software.But I do not agree that the dentists' assistants today cannot handle a dental software. There are mainly 2 reasons for this - a) the assistants are generally the young lot and they already have an exposure to computers, internet, facebook, email etc. b) The dental softwares of this generation are extremely simple and user friendly.We have proven examples of cases where the assistants have picked up using our LiveHospital Dental software very easily and even quicker than the dentists themselves. This is not the case just with appointment booking (which is extremely simple in LiveHospital), but even Dental Records managment, Billing and other features. LiveHospital has clients where the clinic's assistants are fully running the show with the dental software and the dentists are not much aware about it. An interesting case has been for a remote client who signed up for our software on the internet. All remote interaction with that clinic happened with the assistant only. She started using the system just by seeing our online tutorials. Today, she is one of our top users of the system.Dont assume your clinic's assistant will not be able to use a dental software. Give it a try. Use the software for a trial period. Let your assistants know you expectations. Having a computer with an internet connection will be an added incentive to the assistants.I am sure you can transform your dental practice and that too with full involvement of your assistants.


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Continuous Learning By Dentist

As a non dentist I am surprised on how much efforts a dentist takes in keeping himself updated. This is commendable.  I have seen dentist in India working whole week and then attending conferences over the weekend. I have asked  the question to many dentist on what drives them to learn so much. There were many answers ranging from competition, to lot of  advancements being made in dentistry and hence the need to keep oneself updated.  There was one fascinating answer.  A dentist said that there is immense job satisfaction in doing good work in dentistry.Dentistry is like art and dentists always want to keep improving their skills like an artist. This is great.There is still one disconnect which I think is with dentists in India. They do not use available technologies like blogging, FB pages to educate their patients about new developments. I have always maintained that there is a demand for good quality information. If a dentist provided quality information for his patients via websites, blog and FB pages then it will tremendously help him to build his brand and help his practice. These tools are very easy to use and they will not take much of time.So if you are a dentists then you should try using internet to educate and reach out to your patients. This is very simple. All you need to do is to start.We at livehospital.net can help you on your information technology journey. Please reach us at vishal.singh@livehospital.net or rasmi.singh@livehospital.net


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Time Is Money For Dentist

How many times you as a dentist have given appointments and seen that people do not turn up ? Or how many times people have turned up late ?You know all this impacts your bottom line. Time in money for dentist.  If the appointments go haywire it affects the business directly.There is a simple solution to sort this problem out. Use  SMS Reminders.  This would mean that your patients are reminded of the exact time and day. Your staff does not  need to do additional work of reminding patients. You could think of rewarding punctual patients with discounts. All this would also make you also punctual. If you expect your patients to respect appointments then you would also need to be punctual. All this is good for your dental business.We at  LiveHospital have Dental Appointment Solutions for Indian dentist to optimize their time.

Please reach us at vishal.singh@livehospital .net or rasmi.singh@livehospital.net for helping you to start the journey to manage clinic efficiently.


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What is better offline dental software or online dental software ?

A dental software can be online or offline. Which is better ? What should Indian dentist prefer ?Our take is that online software is the future. It allows the data to sit in the cloud from where it can be accessed from multiple devices. This is important, as a desktop software can crash and cause all the data to be lost.  Upgrade to a online software happens automatically, where as in desktop software it needs to be applied manually, which can be a time consuming process. In a online software you are always on the latest version and have access to all latest features of software.The world is moving online. You access email, bank details, social network online. There is no reason why dental software should not be online.There is a question of security which we will take in the coming blog posts.


Please reach us at vishal.singh@livehospital .net or rasmi.singh@livehospital.net for helping you to start the journey to manage clinic efficiently.


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Doing cold call is an art.

Working in a start up means that you do tasks which you generally will not do. I have now come to appreciate the effort that goes in cold calling. It is a tough job calling people and making them listen to your point. So next time when you get a cold call remember all the effort that goes in making the call !


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How Doctors And Dentist Can Adopt IT ?

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How to stop cuts in Indian healthcare

The truth is out. It was always out but  http://www.satyamevjayate.in  had brought this out open in a big way.Can MCI make healthcare more ethical by bringing regulations.  The whole business model for healthcare today is based on having more people sick. This is how the industry will grow. Healthcare industry has no incentive to control cost.  Until this incentives are not changed regulations will not help.How do you bring incentives where industry really works to bring cost down.The solutions is by having compulsory medical insurance.  Once the premiums are collected  the state will not deliver the services. There will not be state run hospitals. We know these are plagued by corruption and inefficiencies. The country will be divided into zones and private parties will be invited to set up hospitals. Hospitals will be paid a flat price on per person basis.Now the hospitals will not  earn more money by having more sick people.  In fact in this system, they would want to have less sick people as their revenues are fixed based on the population.  All this still requires regulation to see that hospitals don't cut costs by compromising on procedures. But the game has been changed in this system. You don't want more sick people. You don't want more tests. Hospitals will wan people to be more healthy and they will focus on preventive measures.The model is discussed in detail at  http://sabhlokcity.com/2011/07/exploring-the-zonal-health-care-model-further/ Every one wants others to be honest. I have always argued that honesty is a function of system. A right system can make a industry more ethical. With wrong systems it is impossible to expect ethics.


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satyamevjayate on cost of drugs in India

It was great to see a program on healthcare in  http://satyamevjayate.in/ . I could not see the whole program but saw parts on which I have some observations Cost of drugs - It was good to see that the question of ethics was brought in Indian healthcare industry. It is know fact that doctors prescribe costly drugs when cheap drugs can be given.People were astonished to hear that cost of drugs with the same medicinal value vary as much as by 1000%.  The issue is with the solution prescribed - to have state open generic shops. Nothing can be more disastrous than this. We have seem umpteen times how all this money disappears in corruption. But does that mean that  people should not get cheap drugs.  Yes, indeed they should get and there is a much simpler solution which will actually work Have doctors write generic name of drugs in prescription by lawThis simple act will help to solve the problem. A doctor may complain that he trusts a particular brand. Let him write his preferred brand along with the generic name and leave it to  the individual to decide whether he wants to take a generic or a branded drug.  There could be independent rating agencies which rate the drugs on effectiveness and let that information be available on internet. This will create a genuine competition among pharma companies to lower cost.I hope people will see that state opening pharma counters will not solve the problem. If you don't believe me then this link Jan Aushadi show what is happening. 


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Website pricing confusion- free to Rs 50,000 Rs!

Doctors, hospitals, SME  in India seem to be confused by website pricing in India.  You have a Google htttp://www.indiagetonline.in or Yahoo in India which is offering free website. and then you can have a company quoting from  6,000 to Rs 50,000 for the same website. This is a source of confusion for many in healthcare.The key point a doctor should ask is what does he want to do with the website. Is it only a place holder for his contact details and services or is it going to be more interactive platform. A doctor many not have an answer for all these questions as he would be just starting.The best way a doctor should go forward is to start with one of the free websites by Google or Yahoo. He can spend some time with these sites and then decides if he wants something more.The pricing is different for various factors but making a site look beautiful is art. It takes efforts and hence it becomes more costly to make a site visually appealing. As I said doctors can experiment in phases. First have a free website and then as you get more comfortable decide what you want.It is also important that websites should be dynamic. All the free site provider  will also provide blogging features. This is killer feature which can help a doctor establish his online presence. Today there is explosion of information but getting right and relevant information is tough. If a doctor can provide the relevant information then his practice will reap benefits. The word of mouth will as is being replaced by word of internet.Also you need not wait even wait for a website to have your own blog. There are lot of free blogging online service. You can simply start creating a facebook page and start blogging. You will be surprised to see how much value people give to right information.We at livehospital.net can help you start creating your digital identity right from creating a free website to a visually beautiful website.

Please reach us at  vishal.singh@livehospital.net or rasmi.singh@livehospital.net
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A little information goes a long way

The 2 main criteria for keeping any information are - 1) the information should not be lost and 2) information should be easily available when required to act upon it. When a patient appointment is booked, is it not the responsibility of the doctor to keep the appointment information safe and easily accessible.  The doctors, very conveniently, note the appointment in their notebooks.  But what about the most important participant, the patient. He has no record of the appointment.  A lot of times, the appointment time is communicated by the doctor to his assistant, and then by the assistant to the patient.  Each point of communication is prone to human error. Then the appointment time gets registered only in the patient's memory.  With so many chances of the appointment time getting lost with the patient, the ultimate loss is to the doctor. The doctor has blocked his time and excluded other patients from that time. If the patient doesn't turn up, the doctor's time is lost, and for a doctor, 'time is money'.  Will it not be better if the doctor communicates this information to the patient more effectively.  The SMS is one such tool that is available with almost all patients today. Try out our Appointment Solutions, that notifies and reminds patients of their appointments through SMS. Never have any missed appointment again.


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What should dentist do to tackle competition ?

In one of my recent visits I saw three dentist in a posh area in Mumbai, who have their practices adjacent to each other.  I asked them how they differentiate  among themselves.The general answer is word of mouth and our quality of work. I agree that quality of work remains the most important factor but dentist in India have to use social media, websites and IT services to differentiate.There are many early adopters but others need to do the catch-up soon.


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What is better for dentist - online Marketing or offline marketing in India ?

It is encouraging to see young dentist being positive about marketing.  This is a welcome change.The next question is what is more effective. Is it better to have online marketing or use offline marketing. Offline marketing typically has been a) Word of mouthb) Dental campsc) Free checkupsWord of mouth would remain the most effective means as it speaks for dentist work.  Then should dentist really care about  online marketing ?  My take is that online marketing should be part of overall dentist marketing plan. There are various reasonsa) If  a dentist is in a location, which has huge mobile population then word of mouth is not effective. Websites and blogs will allow to know about a dentist. If a blog addresses the concerns of patients then online trust is formed.  Today people trust blogs more than newspapers. The same will hold for a good dentist.  if a dentist can discipline himself to write blog ,which makes sense to patients then he will reap rich dividends.b) Website and blogs are one time effort. For sure you have to keep writing new contents but your old contents are not lost. c) The future is indeed digital in India. With new smartphones and reach of internet widening every day it can be safely assumed that digital identity for a dentist will be the most important asset for a dentist in coming days.We at  livehospital.net  are there to help you to market your services and provide your patients a good service with the following offerings.1 .Websites2. Appointment scheduling software3.Patient dental records.Write to us at    vishal.singh@livehospital.net   to work along with you to make your practice more efficient.


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Will iPad enhance MR - Doctor interaction?

There was a discussion on linkedin on whether iPad will enhance  MR - Doctor interaction. My take is that technology can never be substitute for human skills. But what about thinking in another way.What if there is an iPad application by a pharma company which explains about the product in details. From the pharma company perspective if they can make the doctor use the pharma application, then lot of information can be pushed to the doctor without the need of MR. Lot of transactional visits can be substituted by technology.This should be the future. I will dare to make a prediction that pharma workforce will be dramatically reduced in the next decade.


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Why Doctors website page rank matters

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How to meet Doctors to sell your IT solution

There was a discussion on pluggd.in forums on  how to market your solutions to doctors. There is always a challenge in meeting doctors.This is what I responded------------------------------We (http://www.livehospital.net/ ) are in the same space Anish. These are my learning. May be they can help you. It will be difficult to attract Doctors only through web marketing. For the first 15-20 customers you would have to meet them. You would need to filter the doctors based on their specialty and  qualification . As you would have realized ,that not every doctor wants a healthcare  solution. Pick up a doctor who is young and internet savy. Pick up a area which is relatively prosperous. A smartphone using doctor has more chance of liking a healthcare solution. There will be other filtering tricks which you will understand as you meet more doctors. What we have done is that we try to meet doctors at the end of their day. In the first meeting we keep it short and only explain them the features of the product. We then ask for a separate time for a detailed demo in case there is interest. My suggestion is that meet as many doctors as you can for a month or two. You will have insight to create your own sales model. Once you have spoken to few doctors then you can try web and other mediums. This can also go in parallel, but speaking to doctor face to face is must. This will give you one the best insights for the real requirements.Once you have got few doctors then you can use their reference to get connected to other doctors. Hope this helps.


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Does Information Technology help Doctors in India to improve revenues ?

The question is does  Information Technology help Doctors in India to improve revenues. I had discussion with many doctors on this question.

The views are mixed.I have suggested to many Doctors that having your website will lead to better brand building.  And if you can blog and really write about what patients want to know, then you are building a huge trust network. The truth is that people do not trust doctors for many reasons in India. There is a huge trust deficit.  Doctors can build this trust using websites and blog.The next point  is that in smaller towns in India doctors think that their patients are not net savy. They think very few patients use Internet. This again is a very wrong assumption. If people are using internet for e-commerce, social networking then they surely are using and will use more of internet for healthcare.What stops an individual to click and ad of a local dentist appearing on Facebook or Google.

If a doctor builds his brand and earns the trust of people then his revenues are surely going to improve. To summarize  Information technology will help doctors in improving their revenues.

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