David S. Feldman, MD Case Study

PROBLEM

David S. Feldman, MD was a New York City based pediatric orthopedic surgeon’s practice. Dr. David S. Feldman was Chief of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery and a professor of orthopedic surgery & pediatrics at NYU Langone Medical Center / NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. Dr. Feldman is a gifted surgeon specializing in the care of children with complex scoliosis, arthrogryposis, hip dysplasia, Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, and lower limb deformities.

I was the contract Marketing Manager at the practice from August 2013 to August 2014 and the main goal of my assignment was to manage, improve, and expand the practice’s website and online identity.

SOLUTION

The majority of patients who visit pediatric orthopedic surgeons have suffered an injury or are seeking consultation on a medical condition. Parents’ concerns with finding the best doctor possible to treat their children can add to the already stressful situation of dealing with an injury or condition. With that in mind, I developed a digital marketing plan that primarily focused on putting patients at ease by providing informative content about pediatric orthopedic conditions and treatments.

DELIVERED

Dr. Feldman has since restructured his practice and the website has been redesigned. But, I’ve provided samples of the content that was created as well as links to social media profiles that I managed during my time with the practice.

Testimonials

I implemented a patient outreach program where I contacted patients and their families to request testimonials and photos. I created a simple but effective project management system that organized patient info and the status of requested materials to allow me to quickly see which patients needed gentle reminders about outstanding items. Once all of the necessary materials were gathered, I would then post the testimonials and photos on the practice’s “Patient Stories” webpage and blog.

Patient Testimonials: Karen

Case Studies

The testimonials recounted the treatment experience from the perspective of patients. With permission from patients I created case studies to explain the experience from a medical perspective. Dr. Feldman records notes about information provided by patients, his observations, and medical imaging and testing results. I would combine these visit notes with the details from operative reports along with x-rays and/or photos to create a treatment timeline in the form of an online case study. The case studies were then reformatted into PowerPoint presentations that were uploaded to SlideShare and also made available as downloadable PDF files.

Ashley: Scoliosis
Ashley Scoliosis

Douglas: Arthrogryposis
Douglas Arthrogryposis

Stephanie: Scoliosis
Stephanie Scoliosis

Shaunak: Achondroplasia
Shaunak Achondroplasia

Public Relations

Some of the case studies were used for public relations (PR). A few were submitted for inclusion in a medical atlas and I collaborated with an external PR partner on re-purposing a few of the more complex and/or human interest stories for media pitches. One of those case studies was featured in the Health section of the ABC News website at “Teen With Shorter Right Leg Designs Snap-On Underwear“.

Thought Leadership Content

While Dr. Feldman treats a variety of pediatric orthopedic conditions, the primary focus of the digital campaign was placed on a select group of specialties (arthrogryposis, scoliosis, hip dysplasia, and avascular necrosis of the hip). I worked to position the doctor as a thought leader on those specific conditions by recording and editing footage of him discussing the conditions and the treatment options he offered. I then combined transcripts of the videos with other sources to create thorough but easy to understand webpages and presentations.

Email Newsletters

I sent out a monthly newsletter to keep patients engaged between office visits. The newsletters primarily consisted of content that had been posted during the previous month. An archive of the newsletters is available via MailChimp and contains links to the individual issues.

Social Media Profiles

Prior to my arrival at the practice, social media profiles had been claimed on several of the major networks but no updates or content had been posted. I took control of the existing accounts and set-up new profiles on a few other networks. There were several boundaries to work within as the doctor wanted the focus to remain on his treatment philosophy so no content was curated or shared from other sources. All of the followers were gained organically as investing in paid social ads was not a part of the marketing plan. In addition, the doctor’s specialties are relevant to very niche audiences. Despite these parameters I was still able to build a small but very engaged audience on social media.

The profiles on SlideShare, YouTube, and Google Plus (Page) were particularly effective at educating current and potential patients. Facebook was a great channel for engaging with families and providing a more personable perspective on case studies.

SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/DavidSFeldmanMD
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/davidsfeldmanmd
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Davidsfeldmanmd
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidSFeldmanMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsfeldmanmd
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/davidsfeldmanmd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidsfeldmanmd

Website Optimization

The practice’s website was designed and built prior to the start of my assignment. I restructured the information architecture of the website by relocating and renaming pages so that navigating the website would be more intuitive. I worked with the external web development company to implement a responsive design and decrease page load times. I then reviewed, edited, and reformatted all of the pages of the website and with the assistance of the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin made further adjustments to improve the SEO of individual pages.

Costumer Relationship Management

In addition to hardcopy files, there were practice management and electronic medical record software programs in place. However, the programs offered limited customization options and referral sources were not being tracked. I researched and experimented with several CMR tools before choosing Salesforce. I then configured Salesforce to allow for detailed tracking of referral sources, distribution of patient visit surveys, and requests for online reviews.