Charter TV Jumps Into Online Medical Space | National firm MyCity.md finds Worcester partner
Simply type ‘doctor directory’ into a search engine and marvel at the 300 million results.
Among them are online doctor directories and medical information websites, from WebMD.com to FindaDoctor.com.
But an Ohio-based company that recently staked a claim in Worcester thinks there is still space in the crowded online medical marketplace.
MyCity.md, which has more than 500 local medical websites across the United States, hopes to distinguish itself from others using a strategy of local media partnerships and content produced by local doctors and health professionals.
MyCity’s newest media partner is Charter TV3 of Worcester, which serves 185,000 homes in Central Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
MyCity.md seeks out media partners around the country to generate more web traffic and build the company’s presence in the medical community, CEO Joseph Benza said. He added that the company’s goal is to provide accurate medical information to consumers as well as a comprehensive search of local providers.
“The only things you’ll find on our site are posted by doctors or accredited professionals in the health care industry,” Benza said.
Charter TV3 hopes for increased traffic to its website and its flagship newscast, Worcester News Tonight, said David Bedard, a senior account manager and producer for the station.
New Health Segment On TV
Bedard said the television news content will serve to strengthen the newscast’s health reporting. A new segment on Worcester News Tonight called Health Watch will start airing Thursdays this month.
The station is working to secure a local doctors and other medical professionals to blog about health topics.
“We’re kind of the feet on the ground in the local market forging relationships or enhancing relationships we already have,” Bedard said.
The blogs are part of the hyper-local strategy of MyCity, Benza said.
Those spaces for blogs on the website are currently filled with placeholder content from doctors based in MyCity’s strongest markets, such as Ohio and Denver.
For Charter TV3’s part, Bedard expects local doctors will be blogging by the end of the year and will appear on Worcester New Tonight this month.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” Bedard said. “We feel we’re in a hotbed for health care in Central Massachusetts.”
Demand For Health Information
A February study by the Pew Internet Project found that eight out of 10 Internet users look online for health information, making health topics the third most popular online activity behind email and using search engines.
Publishing well-sourced medical information online doesn’t only benefit patients, Benza said. Some MyCity.md bloggers have seen a 10-percent increase in the number of patients going to their practices, he said.
“We’re willing to give every specialty an opportunity to have an expert on the site,” he said.
Worcester.md also offers a symptom checker, health care job openings and a doctor ranking and comment function.
Not many local doctors have yet been rated on Worcester.md, but Benza said he expects activity to pick up as Charter TV3 begins advertising the partnership and airing health news segments.
Benza said the MyCity platform provides a back-end system that allows doctors to contact commenters to try to resolve complaints. The commenter is given a chance to re-rate the doctor after the exchange. Comments typically post about 10 days later while the company vets them for defamation.
“On our site, we try to help the doctor and the patient mitigate problems,” he said.
But other than moderating comments that could violate the law, the company allows patients to comment on what they’d like, whether or not doctors agree.
“We’re as much of a patient advocate as we are a doctor advocate,” Benza said.
Health Care And The Web
David Weinstock, a physician and partner at Auburn-based Grove Medical Associates, said the Internet can be a valuable tool, even for physicians.
Weinstock regularly scans WebMD, which he deems reliable, for concise articles that could help his patients better understand their ailments.
“Like anything else, it needs to be used correctly,” Weinstock said. “It’s good and bad.”
Weinstock said he would rather have a patient occasionally come across incorrect information than not be engaged in their treatment.
He said he doesn’t monitor the sites.
“If someone walked in and said I was bad-mouthed I might look into it,” he said. “If I was not as busy as I was I might be a little bit worried about information out there.”
Would Weinstock consider blogging on medical topics?
“I’m not a big writer,” he said. “I majored in biology.”
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