Medical Center Uses Web Questions to Connect Experts with Patients

"When we forward a question to a physician, that individual gets a direct answer back from the physician, says Schuetz. "Our version of Ask the Expert is more of a real time communication between the physician and the actual Web visitor."

"It's a very direct way for them to get access to the doctor and to our services," says Murray.

Experts typically respond within two to three days, although Regine says he and his colleagues attempt to answer questions within a 24-hour period. The Web editors who manage the tool use a database to track questions and ensure that they are answered in a timely manner.

One expert's opinion
While not all users who pose questions become patients as a result of the Ask the Expert feature, it does happen. According to Murray, a hernia patient from outside the country became a UMMC patient as a result of the tool. In another example, a patient who was part of a kidney exchange came to UMMC as a result of a question he posed to one of the experts.

"It's a great way to establish the relationship for the first time between the patient and the doctor," says Web manager Marc Laytar. "People have actually come here because of this first connection."

According to Regine, he has gotten new patients through the program, but he says it's not a big motivator. Out of the hundreds of questions he says he's answered, he estimates that he has gotten one or two patients.

The most rewarding part for Regine is the ability to help patients navigate the overwhelming marketing and advertisements for procedures in radiation oncology. He points to tools like CyberKnife, Gamma Knife, Trilogy, and proton therapy as examples. He says there's no way that patients can tell the subtle differences between all the different and rapidly evolving technologies of radiation therapy.

"Because of all the residents I've trained throughout my career, the textbooks and papers that I've written, the devices I've invented or I'm going to invent, I've impacted so many more lives beyond the ones that I actually see, feel or touch," says Regine. "And this is just another mechanism through the new age of Web-based information to allow me to touch that many more lives beyond the ones I see every day in my clinic."