Eric Vainer is a licensed pedorthist with more than 20 years of health-care experience and has served as the primary proprietor and a senior board member with Dear Feet in Brooklyn, New York, since 2013. In his work with the registered nonprofit, Eric Vainer assists financially disadvantaged individuals and other underserved diabetes patients in receiving orthopedic shoes and education regarding proper foot care. A leader in diabetic foot care in the New York City area, the organization also offers support to uninsured patients.
Eric Vainer is a licensed pedorthist who has worked in the healthcare industry for more than two decades. Eric Vainer currently serves PALA Community Care in Brooklyn, New York, in the position of administrative director.
Medical professionals who assess and treat conditions afflicting the foot, ankle, and other lower extremities are known as pedorthists. A credentialed pedorthist can provide a patient with a number of options regarding the selection and modification of footwear, or orthotics, in effort to mitigate discomfort and lack of mobility related to foot and ankle pain. Certain types of footwear or pedorthic devices may need to be specially designed and created by a credentialed pedorthist.
Orthotics must be carefully fashioned so that both the inside and outside of a shoe, work boot, or sandal can support proper foot function and full range of motion. In order to address specific needs, such as weight redistribution or lower back pain, a pedorthist offers highly personalized care, fitting and modifying footwear for each patient’s needs. A credentialed pedorthist continues to check in with his or her patients to ensure that the orthotics continue to function as intended.
Opening your own private practice can be a dream come true, but building your start up medical practice from the ground up can be a challenge. Luckily, following these five tips can help you promote your new practice in the health care world and can help you see the success that you're looking for.
1. Have a Message/Goal
First of all, come up with a good message or goal for your practice. You will need something that will set your practice apart from others in the world of medicine. For example, you might strive to make your patients more comfortable, or you might want to make your practice come across as more modern-day than most. Come up with the things that mean the most to you; then, you can create your message or goal from there.
2. Use Your Message or Goal to Craft Your Brand and Image
Once you have a message or goal in mind, you should use it to craft your brand and image. For example, for a more "cozy" and small-town type of practice, you might promote a small-time atmosphere in your marketing and branding. Conversely, if you want to promote your practice as being state-of-the-art and extremely modern, you'll want to use modern coloring, fonts and more when creating your logo and other aspects of your brand's image.
3. Don't Overlook the Small Stuff
Don't overlook the small stuff. It's the little things, like nice name tags and business cards, that can really make your practice stand out from the rest. Use these small things as a way of showing people that your practice is different and that you truly pay attention to detail.
4. Create the Perfect Website
In today's world, you're going to have a hard time making your practice succeed if you don't have a website. However, since doctors and other medical professionals often aren't the best at creating websites, you might want to hire a professional for the job. Just make sure that your website is easy to navigate, easy to use, polished and professional to help give off the right image.
5. Use Positive Promotions
Make sure that you use positive promotions to spread the word about your new practice among the community. For example, you might want to focus on newspaper advertisements, and you'll probably want to take the time to write out personalized letters to patients who might follow you to your new establishment.
Getting your new private practice off the ground might not seem easy, but following these tips can help make things much more successful.
Eric Vainer is a licensed pedorthist with 20 years of health-care experience. Vainer has served as the primary proprietor and a senior board member with Dear Feet.
Scientists Develop a Futuristic Telescopic Contact Lens
Despite advancements in medicine and science, more than 280 million around the world have been diagnosed and treated for some type of visual impairment. Among senior citizens, age-related macular degenerative disorders, or AMD, remain the leading cause of blindness. However, at a recent seminar in San Jose, California, a group of researchers introduced a prototype device that may benefit millions.
Eric Tremblay from Switzerland, Joe Ford from the University of California and a team of engineers from Innovega, Pacific Sciences and Engineering, Paragon Vision Sciences and Rockwell Collins combined efforts and created a contact lens having telescopic ability. The miniature telescope magnifies images up to 2.8 times and is situated inside of a 1.55 millimeter thick contact lens. The rigid lens is thicker than conventional contacts to accommodate the device. A larger diameter also ensures that the contact covers the majority of the visible sclera, which ensures proper fit regardless of whether someone might have an irregularly-shaped cornea.
The lenses are created by precisely cutting and assembling polymers, lightweight aluminum mirrors and polarizing films using biologically appropriate adhesives. Light bounces across the miniature mirrors of the reflective telescope, which expand and magnify images seen by the eye. Early versions of the prototype lacked proper ventilation. The lens could then only be worn for 30 minutes. Researchers corrected the problem by adding tiny air channels to allow oxygen circulation. The team continues making improvements on the device while refining manufacturing processes.
In conjunction with the ingenious telescopic lens, users wear a pair of light-polarizing, wink-controlled glasses. When desiring to magnify images, the wearer need merely wink the right eye for magnification. Winking with the left eye returns the lens to normal vision. The precision of the paired devices are also designed to distinguish the difference between blinks and winks. The ability to control magnification makes the device suitable for may types of vision problems in addition to macular degeneration.
While there are optical devices equipped with telescopes available for patients suffering from AMD, the current technology has a somewhat bulky appearance. Some may feel self-conscious while using the apparatuses and resist wearing them in public. The older styles of glasses also do not have the ability to monitor eye movement. Wearers must additionally ensure that their eyes and head are in the correct spatial plane before magnification occurs. The new devices are more visually appealing and offer convenience with a greater degree of functionality.
Eric Vainer is a health care professional and licensed pedorthist with over 20 years of experience in the non-profit healthcare field.
The health industry is becoming more and more competitive as the aging population grows in the United States. While major hospitals and medical clinics have the upper hand when it comes to attracting clients because of large advertising budgets, doctors and physicians who own smaller practices deal with much smaller marketing budgets and therefore have to get creative on how they attract new clients. If you're a doctor that's struggling to attract new patients, use the following five tips on how to leverage social media in your favor:
1. Educate and Interact, Never Offer Advice
A quick tip that every medical professional should follow is to never offer official advice to one particular patient through social media. This can be a recipe for disaster, especially when it comes to HIPAA.
Social media is a tool that is best used for educating your followers about general medical topics. Patients are always interested to learn a new bit of information that could potentially improve their health in the future, and posting daily tips or tidbits about recent medical news can help increase your following, especially if your posts are shared with friends or family members of your followers.
2. Add Images or Infographics to Each Post
When dealing with medical issues, statistics and terminology, consumers often find it difficult to understand exactly what something means. The best way to avoid this is to use an image along with your post.
Your loyal followers who read your posts every day won't spend more than a couple minutes on your particular page at a time. Get your point across quickly, grab their attention, and hope that they share your post with others.
3. Post on LinkedIn Every Day
While LinkedIn might not be the best tool to attract more customers, you must use the platform to network with other professionals who are doctors and medical professionals as well. They can be a great source for referrals and new patients. To avoid any conflicts, focus on networking with people who specialize in a totally separate area of medicine than you do.
4. Ask Questions On Twitter
Asking questions is a great way to engage your audience and leverage the more "personal" side of your profession.
Many doctors are viewed as individuals who have knowledge about every subject and need little advice from others on any medical subject. Asking questions and obtaining opinions from other medical professionals is a great way of showing your followers that you care enough about their health to double check that your decision our diagnosis is accurate.
5. Offer Discounts and Special Promotions
Treat your medical practice like any business owner would treat their company. Use social media to offer special promotions on specific procedures or encourage more people to make an appointment by entering patients who visit you during a specified time period into a raffle for a prize of significant value.
Eric Vainer has more than 20 years of experience working both in for-profit and not-for-profit environments. Vainer is a licensed pedorthist.
The number of Electronic Health Records vendors in on the rise with many new companies starting up each year. When growing your medical practice, it is key to have a great EHR vendor that will give you the tools to streamline administrative tasks and increase the overall success of your practice. Here are 5 EHR vendors to consider for 2015:
Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion is a cloud based, award-winning EHR vendor that is completely free for medical practices. Founded in 2005, it is the largest cloud based EHR in the United States and is growing rapidly. Their platform connects medical professionals, patients, laboratories, billing, and imaging centers. This is a great vendor to consider when growing your medical practice since it connects your practice to such a large community including Practice Fusion’s pharmaceutical partners.
ADP AdvancedMD
This vendor combines EHR, scheduling, and billing into one convenient product. It also has a feature that measures your practice’s performance and graphs financials. The EHR allows doctors to take notes according to their preference with features like a visual note designer, speech and transcriptions, and autofill charge slips. Within the same page, a patient’s allergies, medication lists, medical review, and family history can be viewed.
Kareo
Kareo was designed by doctors and is aimed at small medical practices. They offer a complete platform which includes tools for electronic health records, practice management, and billing. The software and tools are designed to be user friendly and beneficial to everyone working in the medical office. Services costs range from free to premium products for a monthly fee.
Greenway Health
Greenway Health is a good EHR vendor to consider because they focus on hiring people with medical experience to help design their products. The company’s ideals are centered on their user’s experience, and they encourage feedback from their customers. Their products are well designed, flexible, and able to accommodate all different sizes of medical practices. Greenway has been in the health care industry for many years and has a solid reputation.
Allscripts
Allscripts is an easy to use software that streamlines physician tools with patient flow and daily planning. Their EHR product fits the needs for small and mid-sized medical practices. A dashboard makes navigation simple, and physicians can quickly get to lab results, medical information, treatment plans, appointments, and patient flow. A major benefit of the Allscripts website is that it offers live assistance and onsite training.
Eric Vainer is a Medical Professional and Healthcare Provider based in Brooklyn New York. Vainer is a licensed pedorthist with over 20 years of experience.
There is nothing quite like trying something new and getting it right the first time. That “King of the World” feeling is infectious, no matter if it’s a kid hitting his first home run or a business owner successfully implementing new technology to the benefit of his business. If you are one of those folks who are hoping to land in the latter category, we have some good news for you.
1 – In the beginning
Nothing optimal can happen unless you choose the right program. Data technology is constantly changing and, for the most part, improving. However, it is not a One Size Fits All proposition. You need to customize a data program that works best for your business. This will require not only research but also the hiring of the right people who can help you make the right decisions the first time. Failing to take this step will handicap everything else you do.
2 – Know what you are facing
One of the key steps in correctly implementing a Big Data protocol is to understand the particular challenges you face as a business. This will help you quantify how you will use data analysis and what specific benefits it can deliver to you.
3 – Invest in beneficial friends
Trying to harness the power of Big Data analysis on your own is a lot like trying to smack a moving piñata. You might get lucky, but for the most part you are swinging around blindfolded. Investigate forums to learn more, talk to experts in the field – and not just salespeople – read all you can on the topic and become conversant on the latest trends. You don’t have to understand all the science to develop reasonable expectations regarding Big Data.
4 – Understand your data
The myth behind Big Data is that it’s somewhat akin to sticking your hand in a grab bag and hoping to get something you want. That’s not it at all, really. To properly win with Big Data you need to understand the sort of data you are collecting, where it is coming from and how you will organize it. This process will require some tweaking, but you should never go into it blind.
5 – Rate and recognize
One of the key components of a successful Big Data program is the ability to understand what data you have and, more importantly, have the ability to rate its importance. This isn’t about “good” versus “bad,” it’s about which sort of data or data group is best suited to benefit your business…and at what point that benefit can be realized.
While these strategies cannot absolutely guarantee success, they can greatly reduce your learning curve and potential for mistakes. This alone should carry you to a Big Data win…sorry, we can’t help you with that home run, though.
Eric Vainer is a New York City based entrepreneur who loves big data.
Three Ways to Tighten Financial Waistline of Your Practice
The financial books of a medical practice can be challenging. Identifying a budget, looking at spending, increasing revenue, considering ROI and taking a close view of areas of finance are certainly important. Fortunately, there are ways to ensure that the financial waistline of a practice can tighten safely and appropriately.
Education is one of the best ways for a clinic to tighten a waistline.
Education pertains to patients as well as members on staff, such as doctors, nurses and administrative assistants. The fact of the matter is that patients need to know about insurance and financial policies that are available. There are many instances where patients were unaware at the insurance policies that can save them a lot of money. Members on staff who are aware of financial and insurance policies can help patients locate and identify what works best for them. After all, educated people can make wonderful decisions that can help a clinic keep finances in check.
Boundaries within a business and other areas in life can be very beneficial.
Having a boundary in terms of setting a limit on maximum outstanding debt is a great starting point for a medical practice that is seeking to tighten the waistline. An accountant and other members on staff need to keep in know that there are boundaries in terms of how much outstanding debt a practice is willing to receive. A medical practice that is willing to put a limit on outstanding debt will protect the business and employees from bankruptcy and other dangers that can occur when a medical practice has too much expensive and not enough revenue.
From time to time, people complain about a business refusing to accept a certain payment option.
It can be easy for a medical practice to refuse certain payments, such as checks. While it can be easy to justify such boundaries, it limits patients from paying off an important bill. Therefore, make payment options as easy as possible. People like businesses that accept a large variety of payments. When this occurs, bills are much more likely to be paid on time. As bills are paid, it enables a medical practice to tighten the waistline.
A medical practice can save money and tighten the waistline. It may take time and effort to get noticeable results, but the work is worth it. A medical practice can come out stronger when the waistline is tightened.
Eric Vainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care.
The Current State of Medical Practice Management Software
Medical practices turn to medical practice management software solutions for different reasons. Some look for easy deployment while others are focused more on billing and productivity. The current state of medical practice management software shows tremendous cost savings, better productivity, and improved accuracy for practitioners in a number of ways.
Deployment strategies and solutions for cost savings
Some practice management solutions offered in the cloud minimize the investment required for managing technical resources. Many companies turn to these solutions so that they can avoid having to worry about IT solutions. In a cloud environment, the provider handles a lot of the upgrade and maintenance requirements. The web-based practice management software solutions can be offered completely online through a subscription price model. The EMR solutions can also be hosted onsite, which could require a considerable upfront payment for the initial payment and then lower monthly costs. The on-premise solutions relies on internal server resources.
Better accuracy with self-auditing features
Accuracy in billing and auditing concerns are another focus for practices. There is now a growing demand for greater accuracy in billing practice for compliance purposes. As a result, companies are now developing automatic scrubbing features. The auditing features improve accuracy in combining millions of claim parameters on the state, commercial and federal level. Better, accurate reporting and claims process increase productivity.
Enhanced collaboration
Systems are designed to coordinate activities across team members serving in a range of different capacities. Administrative tasks are combined with scheduling, billing and note taking mechanisms for seamless workflow. People are able to better work together with these solutions. In handling all of the operations functions within one solution, practices are more efficient in all of their management practices.
Challenges in medical practice management software
One of the leading challenges for physicians is determining how to speed up the deployment processes for clients. An additional challenge is creating the supporting systems to enable physicians to do more than review or access medical claim and patient information remotely. Some solutions are susceptible to periodic freezing during a session. This makes it difficult for users to transition between different roles. Better filtering mechanisms across all of the documentation and activities are additional problems clients are facing when using practice management software.
Practice management software has come a long way in optimizing practice management solutions. Companies now have access to solutions that can improve their billing practices as well as increase productivity. Cost-effective deployment opportunities make it easier for companies to plan and control their practice management costs.
Eric Vainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care. Vainer is an expert on corporate culture and a heralded entrepreneur from New York.
In a time when US Health Insurance companies need to push an all-hands-on-deck approach to customer service, one insurer seems to have slept through that particular class. At least, that’s the reaction of many customers after a recent announcement that will further limit coverage.
According to CNN, UnitedHealthcare has chosen to put “sharp limits” on the most common of hysterectomies. According to the insurer, this procedure, though common, “poses a health threat” and that a different form of the surgery has been “found to be safer.”
Physicians have been notified that UnitedHealthcare will begin denying coverage for laparoscopic (abdominal) hysterectomies in April unless the physician receives a pre-authorization. Further, vaginal hysterectomies are “preferred” and will not require pre-authorization. Since this form of the procedure accounts for only 22% of the 500,000 annual hysterectomies, that represents a huge change and, some say, a clear-cut case of an insurer stepping between a patient and her physician.
It should be understood that the insurer has cited the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that "evidence demonstrates that, in general, vaginal hysterectomy is associated with better outcomes and fewer complications than laparoscopic or abdominal hysterectomies."
But even this august company may not stem the tide of negative PR once physicians who opt not to get preauthorization for the procedure start seeing their claims denied. At that point those doctors, who may have known about this or may not have, will be obliged to bill their patients – who likely did NOT know.
That particular step in the process has significant PR value attached to it. If a patient does not know, they can either blame their doctor or their insurer – probably both. Suddenly, what could have been common knowledge turns into a major PR issue for every for-profit entity involved. This is a case of bad news with a good reason behind it. The patient may not appreciate it, but the sooner they know, the better they can address their options.
Eric Vainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care. Vainer is an expert on corporate culture and a heralded entrepreneur from New York.
There is noreason for your team to be a loser. Half the battle in winning anything is establishing a culture and expectation of winning. If people are willing to accept mediocrity, that is what they will achieve. However, you have to do more than demand excellence; you have to build a culture of excellence and a winning mentality across your entire team. That might sound impossible to you right now, and it is … if you give up where you are. But if you are willing to work in the right way, you can change your culture and achieve success.
1 – Win
Nothing creates future success like current success. Too simplistic? Only because you don’t yet understand. You are still looking at a “big picture,” dreaming of big wins when you can’t even string together a few small successes. And that, friend, is the problem. In football, you can’t win the game if you don’t score, and you can’t score if you don’t get first downs. The point? Small victories lead to greater successes. So start small, and aim for a series of tiny wins. They might feel small to you, but they will pay huge dividends in the hearts and minds of your team. Your people need a win – they need more than one – and it’s within your power to give them that opportunity. What are you waiting for?
2 – Accurately communicate your goals
If you team is not clear about who you are going after and what you are trying to sell them, then you have already lost. Everyone on your team should be able to identify your target customer and explain their part in successfully selling to that customer. If they don’t understand where they fit, they won’t see the value of their contribution. When your team doesn’t understand their value, their quality of work will reflect that confusion. Once you have their buy-in, reward their connection to the process. Let them know, in no uncertain terms, that their contribution is valuable to the end result. Your people will work harder and better, increasing your opportunities to be successful.
3 – Answer your “why” questions
Every business has a series of “why” questions that must be answered if you want to be successful. Why are we doing this? What product or service are we marketing? Why does the customer want this, or, better stated, why SHOULD they want what we offer? If your team understands the “why” questions, then they can easily show customers why they need what you have to offer. Better still, you can teach your prospects to want what you are offering. Then, when you meet that want or need, they thank YOU for your business.
4 – Accurate Forecasting
Business success is never about “now.” Your “now” is the result of a great many “yesterday” decisions, for good or ill. Your “tomorrow” will be the same. If you cannot get a handle on what will make your business successful in the future, then you should have major questions about what you should be doing today. If you are certain of what you are doing today, but you aren’t aware of where those actions are leading you, then you are operating from a losing strategy.
Each of these strategies can improve your chances of fielding a winning team. Taken together, these four simple steps can completely change your team’s mindset and ensure a much more successful future, both short and long term.
Eric Vainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care. Vainer is an expert on corporate culture and a heralded entrepreneur from New York.
Establish Company Culture in Your Medical Practice
Company culture serves an important role in the success and satisfaction of employees in any industry. But in a medical practice, company culture could literally be the difference between life and death. The health of patients is always on the line in the healthcare industry. A better corporate culture will eventually lead to even greater satisfaction among your patients. The wellness of the patients leads to greater satisfaction among the workers, too. Follow these tips to establish and maintain a quality company culture.
Clearly Outline Your Goals
Your employees should always know exactly what is expected of them. Hold meetings as often as possible to remind your staff of your company goals. Give progress reports to inform them how they're doing. Ask for suggestions from the staff on how to improve the goals and tweak them for more success. Your staff does all the hands-on work out in the field. They know what is working and what isn't working. Take their suggestions seriously, and add some of your own. When everyone works toward the same set of goals, everyone will stay on the same page. And the more you meet your goals, the better off your patients will be.
Encourage Teamwork
Teamwork is an important aspect of any company. But medical practices need teamwork more than any other company. Your staff will need to work together to treat and serve the patients. The nurses will have to be able to work well together, and they will also need to work well with x-ray technicians, lab specialists, specialty doctors, and more. Your staff should be a well-oiled machine that is capable of tackling any task in front of them. Your entire company will benefit from great teamwork. The strengths of each and every person will mesh for the greater good of the entire medical team.
Focus on Employee Contributions
Psychologists have always said that rewarding accomplishments is a much better technique in all aspects of life than punishing mistakes. The same is true in a medical practice. You will certainly need to deal with mistakes in a positive way, but the focus of your practice should be on the goals achieved by your employees. If your team of nurses received great feedback from patients this month, then you should recognize their efforts and reward them accordingly. Those who aren't getting rewarded will eventually get the hint that they need to improve.
EricVainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care. Vainer is an expert on corporate culture and a heralded entrepreneur from New York.
Every February “love” takes center stage. For weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day consumers are showered with sometimes conflicting messages regarding how they should express their undying love to their Valentine. Nomatter how you feel about the commercialization of affection, there are a greatmany things that love can teach all of us about leadership.
The connection between love and leadership is about more than letting people know how much you appreciate their efforts and expertise. While it’s always a smart thing to let your team know how much you appreciate their individual and collective contributions, that should not be where your commitment to your team ends.
That’s not to say you should never say thank you. In fact, a successful leader will always find ways to make certain his or her people understand exactly how much they are appreciated. A simple “thank you” might seem like an insignificant investment, but that expression of sincere gratitude almost always generates an impressive return.
Don’t be a jerk. This should be self-explanatory, but … well … you live on this planet too. You know it’s not. But what if you are not a jerk? What if you are a driven person who simply wants the best for his or her business? Study the ways to communicate urgency and passion without being perceived as obnoxious. An amorous suitor can bring passion and motivation to his program, but his delivery will make or break his success. The same applies in leadership. More often than not, what you say is less important than how you say it.
When expressing your commitment and appreciation to your team don’t forget to invest in yourself. Loving yourself is about more than maintenance. It’s about getting stronger, smarter, wiser, more connected and more prepared—getting better. Investing in yourself also means developing your strengths and understanding your limits. The best gift you will ever give yourself is to surround yourself with people who are great at what you are not so great at. Then get out of their way.
In closing, it has been said, “love never fails.” Whether you take that as a goal, a promise or a pie in the sky ideal, that phrase has one final message for the leaders reading this. If you are a leader, you need to do all you can whenever you can to help your team achieve success. You may not always get exactly the result you want, but as long as you refuse to fail your team, you will always help them find a way to succeed.
Eric Vainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care. Vainer is an expert on corporate culture and a heralded entrepreneur from New York.
People want to know that the medical practice they are utilizing the services of is constantly expanding. This means that people will be more likely to use the services of a medical service provider because they are progressive.
Having The Expansion Plans
The more new services that a service provider is able to offer the easier it will be will be to attract new customers. This is because people want to know they are in the hands of people who care about quality medical treatment being offered to their patients. The more information that is available about the expansion plans of a practice, the easier it becomes for people to take the ideas of the people behind the medical practice seriously.
Scheduling Easy Appointments
One of the most important factors in building a strong medical practice is making it easy for people to schedule appointments. This means that people answering phones must be able to understand how to accommodate people's needs in the most simple and efficient way possible. Having an online scheduling option is usually beneficial for 5 to 6 that are focused on the ceiling to individuals who have crazy schedules. Whenever possible extending hours at least one evening per week will accommodate patients who do not have the availability of sick time in order to get their medical needs taken care of. Being able to offer an option for people that do not have access to time off their regular job for medical reasons can be helpful to expanding a practice.
Understanding The Local Market
Many times medical practitioners to not give sufficient research into the needs of their specific potential patients. Sometimes, having a questionnaire about the services that people would like to see offered in terms of Medical Services from a medical practice. While it may not be possible to offer everything that people request, doing the research shows an interest in the long-term relationship building aspect of successful patient relationships. This is essential for the development of lasting connections which will be beneficial to the bottom line of the server surviving spouses seeded with a medical practice. When people are willing to listen to their target audience and they will be able to provide a more comprehensive service package for the needs of people which may be long-term patients which allow the actress to stay in business.This is beneficial to both patients who want to be able to trust a medical practice and the staff of the practice.
Eric Vainer is the Chairman of Dear Feet and the Director of Pala Community Care. Vainer is an expert on corporate culture and a heralded entrepreneur from New York.
Setting up a Facebook page is a wise marketing strategy for any type of business because social media platforms help to connect individuals with companies in innovative ways. Doctors can benefit from this direct level of communication with their current and prospective patients, but they want to do so within the appropriate context.
Avoid Brand Badgering
As a doctor, you likely have certain brands of health necessities, or particular health locations, that you would refer patients to. Promulgating some of this information is fine as you want to establish yourself as a credible and reputable source of health information. However, if you start to badger other brands or entities, then you risk losing patients who support them or who work for them.
Don't Offer Medical Advice
Providing medical advice to an individual without actually seeing him or her in your office could prove disastrous in many ways. Using social media to give medical advice is definitely a bad idea. In the event that someone asks a question that requires a visit to respond, let that person know the easiest way for him or her to set up an appointment.
Post Useful and Basic Information
Sometimes, people avoid going to the doctor, or selecting a particular one, because they cannot find even the most basic information that they need on the practitioner's website or social media page. Don't make it a hunt to find the hours that your office is open and the types of insurance that you accept; readily providing this information can help you to grow your business.
Post News from the Medical Field
Showing that you are actively involved in what the medical profession has to say demonstrates the fact that you are not just stuck in your ways. Instead, it shows current and prospective customers that you want to remain fresh and innovative in both your content and your practice. People who are interested in medicine might look to see what you post as a source of information.
Build "Beside Manner"
In a busy clinic or practice, spending a lot of one-on-one time with each patient can be difficult if not impossible. However, you can use Facebook to build these relationships. Take the time to answer the questions that individuals post and address their concerns or complaints as well.
When you properly use Facebook, you have the opportunity to expand the scope of your practice out to new patients.
The part of the body that most people tend to ignore until there is a problem is the feet. The feet are often the most overlooked part of the body, when they are, in fact, one of the most important. Your feet are your freedom. One problem could take that freedom away from you. In order to keep your feet healthy, you will need to take a good look at what you eat. Your nutrition can have major effects on your feet and should always be the first thing looked at when you have a foot condition.
Inflammation is one of the most common problems associated with a diet that includes a high amount of sugar. Many often experience inflammation in the plantar fasciitis region, which is the thick band of ligaments that runs the length of your foot. Heel pain and pain in the arch are also areas that can become inflamed and painful when your diet is high in sugar. Cutting back on sweets and junk foods could eliminate a lot of that inflammation.
Another common problem among those who have poor nutrition is obesity, which can also cause problems with the feet. Your feet can become swollen and tender after carrying around more weight than they should. Putting this much pressure on feet every day could even cause permanent damage and lead to tendonitis, arthritis, and plantar fasciitis.
Diabetes has been listed as the most dangerous condition that is often caused by obesity and poor nutrition and has been linked to several medical issues in the feet. The most common is neuropathy, in which the nerve endings in the feet are damaged. In turn, this can lead to pain and numbness. Lesions can easily form on the feet as you may not notice that a shoe is rubbing the wrong way or even stepping on something sharp. These lesions can lead to massive infection and often lead to amputation.
Sadly, millions of people suffer each year due to poor nutrition. A change in your diet could easily reduce your risk factor for a wide variety of medical conditions, including foot pain, obesity, and diabetes. Each one of those conditions can cause a life of pain. Problems in the feet should not be ignored. The truth is that a simple pain in the foot could be a sign of a very serious medical condition and it should be taken seriously.
