Technology for a new millennium for anyone interested in spreading the chiropractic message.
Technology for a new millennium for anyone interested in spreading the
chiropractic message.
September 2000
We
encourage you to forward this newsletter to other chiropractic colleagues.
Please visit our Web site at www.nowyouknow.net
Our email address infoage@nowyouknow.net
In this issue:
Fred Barge Joins "Now You Know" in Offering New Chiropractic E-card Service
Dr.
Fred Barge, one of the most prolific authors in chiropractic, has
joined forces with "Now You Know" by lending his expertise to a new
high tech patient communications Internet service called
"Echiropractic". We are proud to unveil "Echiropractic.net"
and to have an author the caliber of Dr. Barge add to our new service by
providing us with his patient writings.
The new service, which opens November 2000, is on the web site www.echiropractic.net , and features unlimited online chiropractic pamphlets and letters written by Dr. Barge, myself, and three pamphlets on vaccinations written by Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center . For a minimal yearly subscription, doctors will be able to send unlimited personalized chiropractic pamphlets via the Internet to all their patients with Internet access.
This new Internet service allows chiropractors to send customized online pamphlets directly to their patients on a wide variety of chiropractic subjects. Patients can read them at home on their own computers and then forward them to others. This service is not unlike other types of online greeting cards, such as "Blue Mountain.com" or "Greetings.com" with the difference being that Echiropractic sends solid principled chiropractic messages over the Internet with the subscribing doctors office information and a personal message."
I have personally tested Echiropractic in my own office and it works great! Imagine having a new patient in your office, and before they get home you have sent them an email welcoming them to your office as well as an email to the person who referred them, all before the new patient even gets home. I can now send my patients every type of letter and pamphlet I have always wanted to without spending on postage or envelopes. It is so immediate, that if a patient discusses an issue with me on a certain visit, I can email them information on that subject before the day is over.
Information on all of the Now You Know services as well as the new service Echiropractic can be seen on their web sites at www.nowyouknow.net and www.echiropractic.net .
Busiest Practice in North America!
If
you have ever imagined who has the busiest chiropractic practice in North
America, I am about to tell you. 
Before
I do let me say that I have been there and seen it myself. He is in a solo
practice and sees all the patients himself. When I was there I timed him
at around 40 seconds per patient. However, when his staff did a poll and
asked his patients, "how long do you spend with the doctor on each
visit?", their response was 8 to 12 minutes. That is real time
presence! He presently sees over 2600 visits per week himself! (yep I said
twenty six hundred). His busiest day was 684 patients. Are you Wowed? OK,
his name is Dr. Rob Schiffman and he practices in South Bend Indiana.
For the longest time my friend Rob has been one of the best kept secrets in our profession. But not any longer. He has finally agreed to break out and share his amazing ability with others in a new program called, "Get The Big Idea!" This one day program from 10 AM to 9 PM, will be given on October 21st in South Bend. The cost is only $289.00. I plan on being there. For information or to register please call Karen Marsh (seminar director) at 800-505-8180. You can also visit their web site at www.getthebigidea.com.
How many web sites are there?
Through June 2000, there are 13,260,000 active Web sites in the United States. The scale is as shown below.
To give you an idea of the growth, just look at the charts below.
Total
Domain Names registered by Quarter — 1996 through Q2 2000.
Planet Chiropractic, great chiropractic news site.
If
you have not heard of it already, check out www.planetchiropractic.com.
This site is probably the most exciting and up-to-date news-magazine
style web site. The "tech" on this site is second to none in
chiropractic! (and that is coming from us and we are in the web
business). Dr Mike Dorausch, a recent chiropractic graduate from Cleveland
Chiropractic College LA is the founder and principle designer behind this site. He is
constantly out on the road collecting videos, sound clips, pictures, and stories
for his site. It is well worth the look, check it out!
MDs Patients Using the Internet
From a web site called "Doctors Guide" comes some interesting study results of the numbers of patients that use the Internet and bring their findings to an MD. The question that was asked by the survey was, "In the past month, what percentage of your patients brought you health-related information they found on the Internet ?" The results of that study can be seen in the graph below.
| 0% | |
 |
18 % |
| 1-5% | |
|
24 % |
| 6-10% | |
|
15 % |
| 11-20% | |
|
11 % |
| 21-25% | |
|
8 % |
| More than 25% | |
|
22 % |
The New Healthcare Consumer
From the web site drkoop.com comes an interesting story of the new Internet Health care consumer. The article starts off by saying, "They bring printouts to their appointments. They question their doctors' diagnoses. They look for alternate treatments. They represent a new kind of medical care consumer -- patients armed with information they found on the Internet." The full article can be seen at: http://www.drkoop.com/news/stories/july/consumers.html?nl=dkc&sct=top&dt=083100
One Third of Patients Want Doctor to Use Email
"More Than One Third Of Patients In US Want Physicians To Offer E-Mail." This headline came from Reuters Health News, August 21, 2000. The article reported on the results of a nationwide poll in which 1000 adults were polled to see what types of services they wanted their doctors to offer. The study was sponsored by VHA, a national cooperative of more than 1,800 community-owned hospitals, is the parent company of LaurusHealth. In the article Bruce Brennan, VHA vice-president for consumer services commented, "We wanted to find out what patients are thinking and what services they want most from their doctor. We found that 35% of those polled would choose a doctor who offered electronic options." He later commented in the article, "People are begging for information. They want the information to come from their physician [and] e-mail is an easy way to communicate that information." This should be a word to the wise for the chiropractic profession who should not fall behind the MDs, or the general public in this drive for information!
Now You Know Hits Another Milestone: Currently over 300 offices now use Now You Know for their Internet presence! In just two short years we have grown to have over 300 subscribers to Now You Know web site, and or Email Newsletter services. Most of our subscribers presently get both these services. These numbers do not include the upcoming "Echiropractic.net" service opening in November. All of the 300 offices will have the opportunity in October to sign up for the Echiropractic service at a substantial discount. We want to thank all of you who have recommended us or who are using our services. We currently estimate that somewhere around 60,000 chiropractic patients and consumers read our Now You know materials each year. We are also getting regular requests for information on our services from all over the world and from every continent! We are glad to see that more people are finding out about chiropractic from our solid chiropractic message. We thank you!
Echiropractic.net Will Soon Be Here! A new and revolutionary service will be offered to chiropractors starting November 1st, 2000. Current NYK subscribers will be offered a pre-opening discount to get involved with this service before it is offered to the general profession. If we are teasing you just a little you can peek at the pre-release on our sister site, www.echiropractic.net.
To find out more about the Now You Know services, please visit our Web site at: www.nowyouknow.net
Now
You Know has even created a free CD-ROM that explains some of the NYK
services.
For a free CD-ROM or any other information, please contact us at:
email nowyouknow@nowyouknow.net
,
call us at 678-570-7750
Now You Know at 3450 Velma Drive, Powder Springs, GA, 30127,
Please forward this newsletter to another chiropractic colleague.