Clearly, a New and Clever Use of Video for Doctor Marketing

We’re always watching for new healthcare and doctor marketing tools. But only a few “new, online startup” companies get the necessary business traction to be successful. That said, we spotted something unique from Clear Health in Minneapolis called Clear.MD. [That’s clear-dot-md, not dot-com.]

It’s a startup—presently in online Beta testing—but Clear.MD shows some genuine promise as a healthcare marketing tool that “connects providers and patients through short, single-topic videos."

The home page is graphically clean, functionally simple, inviting and reminiscent of Google’s search page. Site visitors are immediately invited to: “Search for any health topic and watch short, clear, single-topic videos from local healthcare providers.” (That’s pretty straightforward, so try your own test search. A quick tutorial video is available.)

Here’s more about how this system works, and some of the reasons we like this idea:

• Searching online for healthcare information is immensely popular. This site is aimed at patients and prospective patients…thus, a prequalified audience. Medical topics are searchable by symptoms, treatments, conditions, medications, providers and/or facilities. It should prove to be useful and more health-focused than wide-ranging YouTube.
• All search results are brief videos. Video is a powerful and popular communications tool that’s easy to understand, especially in the 30-60 second doctor presentations.
• Videos are doctor presentations. There are two immediate benefits here. The first is that physicians are immediately regarded as an authoritative and reliable source. (Not so for many other online search results.) And second, the prospective patient gets a bit of doctor face time. They came for information, but they are also seeing and hearing a doctor that they might contact.
• Providers and facilities are local to the user (if possible). Most online searches are looking for local information. One of the clever bits is that Clear.MD detects the location of the visitor and lists providers that are geographically close--or as close as possible. Our test search produced spot-on video information, a provider’s name, address and phone number…AND calculated that we are 837.43 miles apart. Well…it is still a beta site, and this function will improve as the project grows to include many more local doctors.
• Next step contacts are obvious. In addition to the patient information video, the visitor can easily contact the physician’s office via phone or website for more information and an appointment. In some instances, related hospital facilities are listed along with a map and directions.

It’s a bit early to make doctor marketing recommendations that include a startup website. For one thing, their business model (how they will generate revenue) is not immediately clear. But from what we’ve seen so far, Clear.MD is well worth watching, and perhaps testing.

Qualified healthcare providers can request an invitation to join in the beta site testing. We’ll be watching, and we’ll likely have more on Clear.MD in the future. If you participate, please let us know how it works for you, or visit the site and tell us what you think of this doctor marketing tool.

Stewart Gandolf, MBA