At Health Tap users post questions and doctors post brief answers. The service is free, and the doctors aren’t paid. Instead, they engage in game like competitions, earning points and climbing numbered levels. They can also receive non monetary awards — many of them whimsically named, like the “It’s Not Brain Surgery” prize, earned for answering 21 questions at the site. Ha?
What I have heard over and over again in research is that HCP’s don’t have the time they need on the Internet. They need to get to the information they need when they need it and then they want to move on. So when I read that a new website was rewarding HCP’s with points in a game like platform I was puzzled. These are the kind of things that just don’t make sense today.
Online health is not a game. Last week another insurers posted higher profits in large part due to the fact that less of its customers are opting for medical care. This should be concerning to the medical community because it could mean that people are going online for health information and making decisions that should be made with a their doctor not a website.
I asked of couple of physicians about this site and they laughed and assured me that neither one would be visiting the site anytime soon. As one said “who the hell has time for that and why in the hell would I open myself to possible trouble answering a question from someone who isn’t even a patient ?”
Insurers, drug companies and online health sites have to do a hell of a lot better job in getting people back into their doctors when they have problems. The longer someone waits the worse the condition could become and the more costly it could be. A website like this is more of a joke than a real resource.
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- Digital Domain: On HealthTap, Advice for You and Points for Doctors (nytimes.com)
Passionate healthcare marketer with over 10 years of experience I believe that what's best for patients is best for healthcare marketers. I also write a monthly DTC Column for PM 360 Magazine and have written many articles on healthcare marketing in an age of empowered patients.
If anything, this is yet another examples that health care professionals would like to be more social and already recognize the internet and mobile platforms as important (but not yet critical) for their practice.
Rich,
FYI, I had a similar reaction to the NY Times article. I posted a similar post on Sermo (doctors only social media site). Responses from physician (who do have time to use Sermo) have been generally similar to physicians you have spoken to. Most docs are too busy to be playing games, and the ones that are not are probably not the best docs to get advice from.