Is there a doctor in the house?

Who says that modern technology and a customer-focused outlook can’t improve the services such as a doctor provides to his patients? This story about a Doctor 2.0, sent to me via my emailed Springwise trends update, is a refreshing take on the traditional profession of medicine. Here’s a doc moving with the times.

Dr Jay Parkinson is a general practitioner serving an area in Brooklyn, New York City. He sees his patients via email, video chat or IM and, heaven help us, he makes house calls to home or office! He runs no consulting rooms, has no paramedical staff. His is a virtual surgery.

This young 31-year-old carries his diagnostic kit in his bag. Included in the range of goodies are an iPhone and Apple MacBook, Of course he also has the more traditional toys that doctors use, such as a stethoscope, blood-pressure monitor, otoscope, ophthalmoscope and many more gadgets to enable him to work towards an intelligent diagnosis.

In order to reassure his patient base on such a touchy subject as fees, he charges a flat rate A year, which provides for certain services. For these, plus additional services, rates are spelled out on his website for those with or without health insurance.

But that’s not all that distinguishes this professional from others. He has a website that allows one to read up about him and his services, make appointments and keep up to date by following his blog. The content of his blog is a great mix of some personal sharing as well as analysis of current healthcare issues.

His patients are preferably residents of the area between the ages of 18 and 39. He states his objectives as a focus on practising preventive medicine to ensure his “clients” live life to its fullest. And, according to his website, he also feels that healthcare should be accessible, affordable and personal.

This 21st-century professional maintains that modern healthcare does not deliver to any of these objectives, which seem to most patients what healthcare should be all about. In his small way, he would like to offer a system that works for his patients.

Wow. What a blast of fresh air. Here is a fresh and relevant marketing approach. The question he has asked is “What would my patients like?” rather than accepting the generally prevailing modus operandi of “How can my patients fit into my day?”.

When I think of how much time I have wasted sitting in doctor’s rooms, and I’m not even the sick type, I want to applaud this young doc. Imagine the ordeal for ill patients who have to go regularly and who have to wait for hours in uncomfortable conditions, reading 12-month-old magazines and putting up with screaming infants or coughing and spluttering co-sufferers.

This kind of customer-focused offering could spread to other professions such as tax consultants, personal accountants, psychiatrists and so forth. I have already seen mobile personal fitness-training services advertised. What else could be adapted to customer-focused services? Just about anything, it seems; if this medical doctor can do it, so could other professionals, one might be inclined to think.