There was a time when
patients treated doctors with reverence (closer to adulation actually!) You
dared not lie to them. You only ever questioned them at your own peril. They
were learned people who spoke in a jargon-riddled language only their peers
could understand. These were professionals, who literally had your life and the
lives and well being of your loved ones in their hands.
Then the Internet
happened. And with that came websites like WebMD and Health.com Things have
never been the same ever since. From a time when patients walked in with little
or no information about their condition, they now routinely go in armed to the
teeth with reams of information on conditions (real and imagined!) that they
have personally researched online. Wearable tech-tools like FitBit and Jawbone
(along with a wide variety of other branded and unbranded ones) today enable us
to monitor our daily exercise and provide us with sharable reports at the press
of a button.
Nearly every household has
and regularly uses state-of-the-art portable Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar,
Digital Weighing Scales and other pro-sumer medical devices. We increasingly
book our appointments, tests and treatments online through various Internet-enabled
channels or through apps. Soon visits to the neighborhood diagnostic centers are
likely to be a thing of the past.
Medical blogs, patient
blogs and a small (yet growing breed) of healthcare professional blogs now
routinely offer advice and tips on how to tackle everything from acne to
recovering from chemotherapy. Home remedies have always been a popular go-to
source of information. Today, they have only taken on an e-avatar; making them
accessible to a much wider audience.
Even buying prescription
drugs no longer warrants a visit to the dispensary or neighborhood pharmacy.
1mg and Netmeds have made ordering, buying and delivery of prescription
medication hassle-free, not to mention more economical due to the rebates,
discounts and loyalty points offered. The dynamics of how we engage with our
health are rapidly changing.
Can healthcare digital
marketing afford to be left behind?
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