Here in the U.S., trends tend to move from the West Coast eastward, or vice versa. It’s not a political statement by any means; just a phenomenon unique to our society. Our coasts are more heavily populated than the interior, with a diverse offering of people and ideas. With the help of the internet, email, blogs, cellular phones, cable TV and 24/7 news broadcasting this pattern is becoming more diluted as information now travels very quickly across the country.
So how does this apply to chiropractic? It makes us less insular. It weakens our reliance on “chiropractic scripts” to “educate” our patients. People are more informed these days. As information flows more freely and frequently, people are starting to question, or challenge commonly held beliefs. News articles are emailed to friends; which are forwarded to more friends, and so on. Patients are becoming more comfortable surfing the internet and using its many utilities, like Google, Facebook, social bookmarking sites to find information.
Chiropractors need to be aware of this growing phenomenon. It’s a sign of the times when Grandma Jones says “no” to her doctor who wants to put her on cholesterol lowering drugs because she Googled “statin drug effects” and discoverd that they can damage heart muscle. The days of the country doctor are coming to a close– your patients are going to research what they are buying from you, online. It’s already here in the coastal regions. In a year or two it will blanket every corner of the U.S, even the most remote, rural areas, as long as there’s electricity and internet access.
So what I’m saying is, don’t make promises or statements regarding chiropractic treatment that are not supported by the evidence. Make sure to use the terms like “may…” and “some…” because your patient just might follow up and see for herself what you’re talking about…
And by all means, establish a solid presence on the internet because that’s where a lot of your patients and potential patients “hang out.” More on this in later posts.
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[...] Yesterday someone started a thread on Yelp.com, the business review site that is catching on like wildfire. I wrote a post on it earlier that explains how it works, and I make no secret about how important I think it is to attracting new patients. But get this, the person on the listserv asked if it was possible to not get listed in Yelp. Apparently, he was concerned that someone could anonymously write a bad review of his clinic. Then, another chiropractor chimed in and said she got a bad review from someone whose name she didn’t recognize. A couple more chiros chimed in and basically expressed their negative opinion of Yelp. I thought to myself, what the heck are these people thinking? Didn’t they read my post saying chiropractors must move towards modernity? [...]