Patient education isn't just about setting realistic expectations. It’s also a competitive advantage that sets you apart and keeps people coming back and referring their friends.
Recorded live at AAD in San Diego, Robin Ntoh and Tyler Terry explore the importance of patient education for differentiating your aesthetic practice from competitors.
Hear how you can uplevel your patient education game and demonstrate to patients that you’re invested in their experience from beginning to end.
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Hosts
Tyler Terry, Director of Sales, MedSpa at Nextech
Access Robin's toolkit of helpful resources to help optimize practice operations»
Request a demo of TouchMD https://www.touchmd.com/demorequest
Transcript
Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.
Tyler (00:13):
Hey guys, we are live here in San Diego at AAD and welcome back to the Aesthetically Speaking Podcast. My name is Tyler Terry, I'm your host and I'm here with my co-host, Robin Ntoh, Robin.
Robin (00:27):
Hey Tyler. It's so exciting to be here at AAD. There's a lot of energy out here. There's a lot of people on the floor. It's day one, it's go time here.
Tyler (00:36):
It really is go time and there really is an energy that you can feel. As soon as I walked in, I forgot how big this conference hall is, and it's really a reflection of the industry. It's a reflection of the specialty.
Robin (00:47):
Yeah.
Tyler (00:48):
So let's start off with this question, and it might be obvious, but we're talking today about patient education, but it's kind of a broad term. When we're talking patient education, what do we mean by that and why is it important to an aesthetic practice?
Robin (01:07):
Honestly, Tyler, I think that patient education is just probably one of the things that most people don't pay attention to. We just kind of make it a process that we've been doing for so long that we don't even think about, well, is there a different way to do it? Is there a better way to do it? Is there something that could be more engaging, that could really work better for my practice or for my patients in general? And so a lot of times we just take it for granted that they're either going to figure it out themselves or they've already cruised the internet, they've got all those sources out there, but is that really the best way to do it? I don't know. What do you think?
Tyler (01:42):
I feel like patient education is a timeless topic and something that our various technologies has focused on for a long time, but it's become a hot topic today and I think it's for a multitude of reasons, but it's so important now more than ever for practices to focus on patient education for everything that they offer, every product, every procedure, every service. And it's important because the practice should take that to heart, should take the fact that they need to, it's imperative for them to build out content that is important for the patient videos to watch before and afters, to look at testimonials to read and review. But when we think of paper, paper oftentimes gets outdated so quickly even in a matter of days and things change, technologies change. And so it's important to have a digital format so that you can update things in real time
Robin (02:43):
Completely. That was a lot to unload because there's so much about education today that we just don't think about. Think about, five generations, everybody's got a different way that they consume information. Everybody has different media formats that are important to them. And so what today's digital society, why don't we think about what are the ways that we can do it better? And how do people really take that and process it and put it into the practices and really make it useful? I think about something as simple as TouchMD, that is a great format. We only think photos whenever we think TouchMD, but there's a lot about TouchMD that's really focused around education. I mean, tell us a little bit about your experiences when you think of patient education when it relates to TouchMD.
Tyler (03:30):
TouchMD at its core is a patient education platform, and you've actually brought this up, Robin, where you've said it really is a content delivery platform. It's a multimedia delivery platform and it is a way to deliver content to the patient before they come in the office, in the consult room on the patient app. But what's so important about it, and the best way that I've seen it used is at the point of care in the room while the patient is waiting and it makes them feel like they're not waiting. And it also signals to the patient that the practice is invested in technology and even more so than that, they're invested in the experience, the total experience for the patient. And so when you think of content, like what kind of content should I be promoting or should I be feeding to my patients? And of course it should always be updated and it should be signed off and it should be meaningful to the practice based on how they like to talk about a certain service.
(04:32):
If it's Morpheus8, well, maybe they don't call it by the device, maybe they call it by the treatment type or the body type, but instead of it just being out of the box from the actual company for the practice to actually put their spin on it to actually sprinkle their brand onto it and to be able to have videos for the patient to watch before and afters for the patient to look at. And then testimonials and reviews for the patient to consume. But the most important part is there is this aspect of control for the patient. We want the patient to drive, to choose to select. And the common denominator of what we're trying to accomplish, of course is a better educated patient, but we want the patient to feel confident and comfortable, and that's what patient education is doing. We want them to feel confident and comfortable so that they have better questions for the provider.
Robin (05:27):
You know, you bring up a good point. Patients want to be in control and people want options in today's society. And there's so many different ways for us to consume things when you think about it. I mean, if I don't know how to do something, I can go look at YouTube and it'll tell me how to do it. I mean, it's just so easy to get information our fingertips and a lot of times healthcare, which should be one of the focus points on where I find good information, just really isn't. You see information out there on the internet or YouTube, but it's really those practices or companies that have made an effort to put it out there, but it's generic. It's not necessarily focused just on that practice. And so I look at this as not only how the patient can really learn about a brand, but also really learn about a practice. You know, practices strive to differentiate themselves.
(06:17):
So we think about it, I've got a website, I've got my look and feel on my website, I've got before and after photos. Those things tell a story. They talk about me as a physician, as a practice, how I feel, what I present. But a lot of times we don't think about how we educate and where that differentiates. And like you said, I love the concept of the patient comes in and they sit in the exam room or in the waiting room and they're introduced to this as soon as they walk in the door. Think about it this way, once I get into the exam room, if my patient has already had an opportunity to learn about all this, I could actually as a provider probably really focus on a treatment plan because they probably already preselected where they think they're going to have the best outcome.
(07:03):
Now as a provider, you still want to make that decision. You want to do your assessment and your plan, but if you go back and think about that whole education just set the stage. So now you don't have to spend as much time in the exam room. You don't have to spend as much time explaining something. So I love that you brought that up because I think that is a gateway. It's an entry point. We just assume everybody figures it out on the internet before they come in, but when they walk in the door, instead of them waiting and going through their own device, why not give them something that lets them start learning about you? Much better way of thinking about it, you know?
Tyler (07:39):
Yeah. A hundred percent. And you brought up so many points that I want to talk about. One is timing. The timing of delivering content to the patient, not just content, but even not just videos to watch and before and afters, but their pre and post-op instructions and their photos and their recommendations and their treatment plan. And timing is such a crucial element to delivering content to the patient. And it's why the content matters in the very beginning. We want patients, ideally in a perfect world, we want patients to get this content from the practice. It's been signed off by the practice before they come in, but we know that patients are busy and because they're busy, they probably didn't have enough time to even do it. So what we would do is we would actually carve out those three to seven minutes and that right there arms the patient so that they feel, again, confident and comfortable in that service and it makes them more aware of other services that are offered.
(08:37):
The other thing that we talk about is how do we signal to the patient everything that we offer? And a lot of times we think that, oh, if I just put Xeomin under injectables and fillers or if I put Xeomin under a certain subtopic, they're just going to know that, of course, that's a competition of [neuromodulator injection brand name]. It's just like [neuromodulator injection brand name]. But oftentimes patients don't know that. Number one, they don't even know to call it Xeomin and they don't even know to even pronounce it like that. So we almost have to put ourselves in the shoes of the patient and remember that it's about how they feel and what they're looking for because it's obviously a service for them, so.
Robin (09:19):
I think a lot of times though people have website fatigue. There's so many websites and they kind of say a lot of the same things. I mean the physicians or providers bios maybe a different look on the waiting room, maybe some before and after photos if they're done well and consistently. But I think the first approach to a lot of these patients of really engaging with the practice is that first experience when they would come in the waiting room and you said something profound that a lot of people just take for granted. You can't assume people know what services you offer. They may be in for a full body skin exam and may not be aware that you actually have aesthetic treatments that you do [neuromodulator injections], that you have an aesthetician, that you treat wrinkles and other things other than just skin cancer. So a lot of times we just assume we get caught up in how we think of things.
(10:08):
And so as a way to introduce those services, you've just given so much more opportunity. And I think one of the best parts about it is I'm not worried about teaching my staff as much to do that. Obviously they want to know how to answer the questions of course, but a lot of times I think about we're constantly struggling with new staff, new team members, and God knows they've got so much to do with checkin. Now you want me to educate this patient on 10 different services so I can upsell today. They just don't have the time. And so we put too much on them and now we're thinking, why am I not doing any more sales? Why don't we have any upsells? Well, a lot of times you're just expecting too much of the people part versus letting technology really work for you. And you know what I love about TouchMD? They could even do their consents there too.
Tyler (10:55):
Yeah, it's true.
Robin (10:55):
It's not just education.
Tyler (10:57):
And it's one less app to download, one less portal to log into. We're at a dermatology conference. One of my good friends, her name's Dr. Sharon Stokes in Kissemee, Florida, and she was one of the first that I've seen, dermatologist wise, to use TouchMD to educate her medical patients. And what she told me was that she was having a hard time or didn't really, her inner staff, didn't feel comfortable promoting and pushing those aesthetic services on a medical patient that's here for something else. But when she handed them TouchMD and they're here for their acne or they're here for whatever the case may be, and she allowed them to be in the driver's seat and for them to be able to browse that, I mean, the numbers were crazy. It was like 35% of patients were asking about an aesthetic service. And this is almost 10 years ago.
(11:47):
This is in 2015. And that was her favorite thing about the technology and that her staff's favorite thing about the technology is because they weren't having to really push it. They got to just give them this beautiful menu for the care, the better care of their patients, and they're here for that skin condition. And then patients are like, actually, this is great. I want to hit back and I do want to see that you offer whatever the case may be. I want to see that you offer HydraFacial and all the different services that you offer. So it's pretty profound when I heard that and many other dermatologists feel the same way using the technology.
Robin (12:23):
Totally agree with you. You think about what you just said, the upselling part of it is key, but now my patients don't have to feel like they're being sold to. And your staff don't have to be salesmen. And now you've just kind of put it in the hands of the patient. I mean, think of it, instead of them cruising through Instagram while they're in the office, which they do, they could be going through your app or your information that kind of focuses on all the great things that you do in the business. And there's nothing wrong with them getting more education about it. And it may be that it plants the seed for today and they may walk out the door and buy a bunch of products and or schedule other treatments simply because they learned more about you while they were waiting in the waiting room versus sitting in the waiting room staring at the walls or looking at the TV or getting more frustrated because they're waiting. So it totally is a game changer in my opinion. If I think about a lot of the practices that do do this, it is key for them, you know?
Tyler (13:18):
Yeah. If you look at some of the other specialties that Nextech is in, ophthalmology, Nextech is a leader in ophthalmology and I, being in an ophthalmology practice, I feel like they've perfected the art of moving the patient from room to lane to room to essentially not really feel like they're waiting. And that is another aspect of this. You want patients to know that you value their time. And going back to the timing is key, but you need to assume that this is just part of the experience. Even if it's a patient that's been with you for five plus years, 10 plus years, make it part of their experience, reintroduce them to the practice. Maybe they've been coming to you for toxin and filler for the last however many years, but maybe they didn't realize that they might want threads or whatever the case may be.
(14:08):
There's so many new services that are being offered. And when you think of consistency, we think of, Hey, we want to have the best level of service when the front desk answers the phone, right? That's the lead off batter for the practice and they're amazing, but we also want to have consistency and all the other things you talked about streamlining. And we're asking our staff and our team to do so much. This alleviates that pain right out of the gate. And you need to really, in any service that you're offering, in any software that you use, you need to be all in, number one, and be confident in the fact that it is going to help you. It is going to help your practice, and it's also going to help your patient. And when you do that and you hand the patient the iPad in the room and you offer that digital menu, I mean the magic just kicks off right there.
Robin (15:01):
You know, you said something intriguing that I want to follow up with. When you have staff turnover, you can see a dip in revenue and it could be significant if you're using that staff member to really focus on upsells. And they could have been a rockstar. They're out sick, maybe they're out for vacation. But do you really want your practice that you have kept at a level state that's been selling X to really go through that change? You don't have to. If you really start using some of the tools that I think are going to be more digital, then you're going to drive more continuity in your practice and you still want your staff to be part of that. You want them to do that. But I think a lot of practices don't look at this as being multifunctional. They think of it as just being more about, like I said before, those before and after photos. They don't think about all the different ways that they can use to educate. And education is not just for after treatment. Education is a big part of how you set expectations. And I think that sometimes that's, you know, left in the hands of the staff that may be where they miss those details, those details that are important.
Tyler (16:13):
So important.
Robin (16:13):
Oh, completely important.
Tyler (16:16):
You know, I'm sitting here thinking we're talking about TouchMD being a way to educate patients, but we almost need to backtrack a little bit and think of what are the probing questions? What are other solutions or experiences that we can offer to a patient to uncover the fact that they might want something else? And one that came to mind as you were speaking was capturing a picture of the patient and using that precious, I talked about the golden minutes, three to seven minutes prior to rooming them using those golden minutes to arm them again with, I took your picture. I'm going to pull it up on the iPad. I'm going to give you a little apple pencil here, and we're going to use those three to seven minutes to allow you to circle areas that you like to enhance. And what happens if we took five angles, we took that right side, right three quarter front, left three quarter left side, we put them on one single picture, one single image. And what would happen if I was able to finally give you some time, some me time, some you time to look at your picture, just you and that photo in the room or those five photos, and you can circle all the different things that have been maybe bugging you, maybe you didn't even notice because you're looking at the mirror straight on every day and you're not really noticing that maybe you have some submental fat, maybe you have some sunspots, maybe you have things that you just weren't really thinking about. And we're really hoping that you go after this self-care component for yourself, for you.
Robin (17:42):
Yeah, I know. I think so many different ways that you can look at this. You don't really have to put all the literature all over the front desk anymore. You don't to have all the educational conversations with them. You can upsell, you can cross-sell, educate all in the waiting room without a lot of effort. And you don't have to have your practice held hostage, so to speak, by staff that may come and go and may not always know it or they don't feel comfortable selling. So just I think we really have talked a lot about how you build up into before they actually see the provider. And I also think there's a lot of opportunity after they see the provider, they've seen the provider, they're ready to leave, and now they've got to make a decision. And it may be a surgical decision, it may be a decision around a treatment plan, it may be multiple treatments.
(18:32):
There's a lot of different ways that you can think about it, but people just can't remember everything. I mean, people remember on average 10% of what you give them. And maybe they just heard something that's a little frightening, like, okay, you've got a basal cell and that could be a little frightening. And they go home and now they've got to consume that. And now all those instructions that had just been imparted to them, we're going to do surgery on X and we're going to do it here, and this is the recovery. And we didn't hear any of it. And they generally don't. And what do they do? They pick up the phone, they call the office. I was in a meeting not too long ago speaking, and I asked the audience, I said, so what is it? Five calls? And they're like, no, keep going up.
Tyler (19:14):
Oh my gosh.
Robin (19:15):
10 calls? No, keep going. I said, are you kidding me? Yeah. And they said it could be up to 20 calls sometimes after a patient leaves a practice. They just didn't understand everything about it because it's to them significant. You say they were cancer, and of course they're freaking out. And so now they're just trying to find a way to consume that information. And a lot of times we think they're going to remember or we give them a piece of paper and they don't really remember it.
Tyler (19:44):
No.
Robin (19:44):
So they're going to go look for it someplace else. So I think, I don't know, I mean, what are some other ways that you've seen practices utilize TouchMD for that post visit education?
Tyler (19:54):
Yeah, yeah. Well, first off, I want to say I can't believe that it's upwards of 20 calls. I would've guess if you said, Tyler, how many you think, and I would say two to five, maybe.
Robin (20:02):
They have a memory problem?
Tyler (20:03):
Yeah. Like wait, are all patients, are you sure? Exactly. Is it the memory? No?
Robin (20:08):
No, no. It's what they said. I was in a conference, 50 people in the room, and that's what they were saying. Yeah.
Tyler (20:13):
Wow. Which I mean makes what I'm about to say even more important, but I had no idea. So the best way is, number one, you have to give patients something that they want to look at. You have to give 'em a reason to even log back in. And we know those reasons, right? Number one, of course, patient education that's curated by the practice, amazing. Two would be their photos. So you want to tuck those photos in to the patient app so that they can go in and look at 'em. Now, a pain point for the patient is they don't want multiple apps. So if we can have one app, and we're going to talk about this, my TouchMD app, one app for patients to view their photos, review their pre and post-op instructions, sign their consents or intake forms, they can send you a HIPAA compliant selfie through the app, which can maybe cut down on some calls.
Robin (21:00):
Yeah, right?
Tyler (21:01):
They can browse through all of the services.
Robin (21:03):
HIPAA compliant. That's the other part. Remember?
Tyler (21:05):
Yeah, the HIPAA compliant.
Robin (21:05):
How many times do doctors take pictures on their phones? Oops.
Tyler (21:09):
Yes, exactly. I know. And that's crazy too. That's a whole another.
Robin (21:12):
Another topic.
Tyler (21:13):
Another topic. But I mean, almost the majority, definitely the majority of doctors that come up and show me, and they'll literally just pull it out on their phone and start showing me, I'm like, should I be looking at this?
Robin (21:24):
Right?
Tyler (21:25):
But yeah, so you want to get number one, give patients something to give them an incentive to log in. Now, a lot of practices prior to us consulting them on, Hey, this is a way for you to get patients to download the app, but they would have a hard time getting patients excited to do it. So you need that enthusiasm by the patient. You need to dangle a carrot in front of them, which is usually their photos. They want to look at those. And then you also give them some kind of safety measures of, Hey, your pre and post-op instructions are tucked in there. Everything you need is going to be in this app. And then we're also, so a way to get them to download the app, number one is, Hey, we're going to send you some kind of speakeasy under the radar specials that we don't promote on social. We don't send out via email.
Robin (22:09):
Great idea.
Tyler (22:10):
We only send them out through this push notification to you. So you're getting kind of the under the radar M-V-P, V-I-P access.
Robin (22:20):
And who doesn't want to be a VIP, right?
Tyler (22:22):
Yes. We all do. I know I do for sure.
Robin (22:24):
Yeah, totally.
Tyler (22:25):
Okay, so alright, so not only do I get to see my photos, my consents are there, my pre and posts are there. I can see some patient education and I can send you photos. Cool. I get access to some specials. Now we tested out 10 different ways to get patients to download the app. We did, I mean giveaways and just a bunch of different things with multiple practices, I think this was like 18 practices. The number one way was as simple as $10 off every time the patient showed the app to check out. So when they're checking out, show that you have the app, you're logged in, great. Get $10 off your service. And because of that, the extra value is you can send out those specials and events just like Starbucks sending push notifications via the Starbucks app.
(23:07):
You essentially have your own Starbucks patient app that patients have on their phone and you can target market. Something we haven't talked about is not only can you see what they're looking at and how many times they log in, but you can market based on what they're looking at. So you're fishing within your own pond. Your pond is your TouchMD system. Patients are looking at Kysse for their lips. You can say, I have a special on Kysse, I want to send it out to everyone that's ever looked at the Kysse product from home through the app, in the office in the room.
Robin (23:36):
Amazing.
Tyler (23:37):
And you could even dial it in to say, I want to send it out to anybody that I've ever tagged their photo as [non-surgical body sculpting] or lips. Or maybe you find that your HydraFacial patients are great prospects for lips and your lips are great prospects for HydraFacial or whatever the case may be. But that's the value. So we're trying to really take it to the next level and have this proactive approach to say, yeah, you should get your patients, there's a value for the patients to download the app, but there's also a value to your practice because you can market to them.
Robin (24:09):
And we always talk about retention, and we always talk about how much it costs to get a new patient versus retaining an existing patient. So I mean, what better way to do it is to cross-sell and upsell to those existing patients based upon something that they've already shown interest on. It's pretty cool. We were talking about when a patient gets all that educational information and they're leaving, and I know there's a lot of different ways to do it, but I think of how a practice actually differentiates themselves. People will go home and they say the second to highest search option on the internet is YouTube.
Tyler (24:48):
Wow.
Robin (24:48):
I mean, that's amazing. If you think about it. And one in 15 searches is healthcare related. I mean, if everybody's out there using YouTube, if you've just told someone that they've got a basal cell and they want to understand, well, what is a Mohs surgery?
(25:02):
Or tell
