Local site aims to give patients resources
After launching an Internet site for physician associations in March, the local Web firm Medical Voyce (medicalvoyce.com) is now rolling out a consumer portal aimed at people looking for a doctor or researching medical resources in their community.
Like the physicians’ site, which he began in partnership with the El Paso County Medical Society, Medical Voyce founder Dirk Hobbs is beginning the patient-oriented site in Colorado Springs and hopes to expand it to all of Colorado and then other regions.
“The whole deliverable in this public site is all about health and wellness in southern Colorado,” Hobbs said.
The idea he hopes to develop is that patients are like everyone else in this digital age:
They’re used to having access to information and searching for what they’re looking for. The site includes a database of doctors, sortable by address and including information like specialties, education, which insurance they accept and a biography. There’s also lists of providers and agencies and other resources.
“Today’s health consumer wants to do a little more research on who they’re being referred to,” Hobbs said.
Medical Voyce is not, Hobbs said, a variation of WebMD. The difference, he said, is that the information on Medical Voyce is local, it’s not aimed at providing diagnoses or remedies. There are articles on various conditions, but they’re local stories and involve local patients and doctors, Hobbs said.
The website is still developing. For instance, Hobbs said he’s working on an insurance section where patients could, for instance, find out how a new diagnosis might affect their rates or coverage.
“If you’ve been running along with a healthy lifestyle and, boom, you’re hit with a diagnosis, what happens to your premium?” Hobbs said.
Medical Voyce will be supported by advertising and partnerships. Once the local version is up and running, Hobbs’ next target is a site for northern Colorado.
For now, however, he’s just happy getting the site under way.
“It’s nice to see this germination turn into something people are actually using,” Hobbs said.
