Is Jay Parkinson at the leading edge of innovative medical care? Or is he a cherry-picking, cream-skimming squeegee-doc? Whatever your opinion, it's fascinating to see the media attention around this newly-minted doctor's unorthodox practice model.
First, visit Dr. Parkinson's website. Even if you find yourself skeptical about his practice model, you have to agree that the website design absolutely nails it. It's uncluttered, engaging and absolutely true-to-brand.
While you're there, check out "The News". This story went viral when Dr. Parkinson started his practice in September. The Wired article is a nice, brief summary. The Chicago Tribune has an interview with the doctor, but the comments posted afterward are very interesting. Dr. P gets into a posting slap-fight with some other docs. Nasty. (I liked it!)
An interview on HIStalk summarizes his business plan.
Dr. Parkinson restricts his practice to 18-40 year-olds - a notoriously healthy age group, no matter his protestations that they do get ill. He also plans not to perform pelvic exams, no doubt for medicolegal reasons. (Difficult to carry a female chaperone with him as he zips around New York on his scooter.)
But, wouldn't a full assessment of a young female with lower abdominal pain usually include a pelvic exam? Perhaps patients need to be pre-screened to see if they fall into his preferred pathology-demographic as well as his preferred age range. (He also talks about practicing preventative medicine. Umm, Pap smear, anyone?)
The media has made much of how radical a departure Dr. Parkinson's practice is from mainstream medicine. The problem with his idea is this: It's not radical enough!
There's nothing new here. Same day appointments? Advanced Access/Clinical office redesign. Email your doctor? Hardly ground-breaking. Housecalls? Come on.
Dr. Parkinson, your plan is too generic, too easy to copy. What distinguishes you from any other Tom, Dick or Sally (yes, Sally - Pelvic Exams R Us!) who wants to give it a shot? If it is a viable scheme, then copy-cats will be popping up like weeds. New York's streets will be thick with Vespa-mounted Docs-in-a-Box, racing each other up high-rise stairs, desperate to over-service the worried well.
In business, imitation is the sincerest form of bankruptcy.
As Tom Peters would say: Re-imagine, Dr. Parkinson, re-imagine!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Cherry-picker or visionary?
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3 comments:
Kishore,
Thanks for the post. There are definitely limitations to this practice. When a patient contacts me, they click on the symptom they are having and fill out a fairly extensive "smart form" that uses skip-branch logic to accurately arrive at a diagnosis. I essentially know what's going on with the patient before I even see them. This allows me to screen for things I can handle with this model and things I cannot. I will refer them to a like-minded office-based colleague if it involves something I can't evaluate in their home. Also, just so you know (most people don't), in most states, chaperones are not able to testify in court because they are normally on your payroll. The conflict of interest eliminates their reliability.
Things are happening with me that I will be announcing regularly on my blog. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but I have begun a venture along with another company to seriously turn some heads. It will be about 4 months before it comes to fruition, but the clock is ticking...and this venture looks much more like visionary than cherry picking.
Be well.
Jay,
Thanks for the comment. I'm interested to look into the "smart form" you're using for your patients. Perhaps we can use this in our urology practice to facilitate referral information from family docs.
Eye-opening comment about chaperones (in)ability to testify on a physician's behalf. I don't what Canadian law says about this.
I'm looking forward to hearing about your new venture. Keep trying cool stuff. Naysayers want you to fail because then they can stick with their comfortable status quo.
Go ahead and fail, just don't quit.
Good luck.
Kishore,
Shoot me an email and I'll send you the password for my forms so you can see them in detail. Maybe we can talk a bit more about how I'm using them and where I'm taking them.
I don't know where you are located in Canada, but if it is in or around Quebec City, I'll be spending the next few months living here in NYC and QC. I'd be happy to talk more about this with you. Take care.
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