Digital technology has done a lot to change healthcare over the past 20 years. And Google is the biggest influence on the web over the past 14 years of the internet. Their “Do No Evil” ‘philosophy’ has given us a whole stable of free and easy to use tools which can make all work easier and better.
Google's premier patient offering, Google Health was quietly buried. There have been no comparable Google tools for doctors. Their Raison d'être, the Google search has long been a much maligned tool for medical professionals. But there is lots more a doctor can do with free Google tools. Let’s take a look at *Five Free Simple Google Tools For Doctors.*
1) Gmail
This is the most useful service ever by Google, barring Google Search. And you can have more of it! You can use Gmail to create 2 (or more) free accounts. So you can create one personal and another public email address for your medical practice. Eg: one can be *dr.nirmal@gmail.com* and another
*neuromumbai911@gmail.com*. By going to settings, you can then set to import your other email account into any one primary gmail account.
You can also enable ‘*multiple inboxes*’ via Labs subtab in mail settings, allowing you to receive neatly segmented mails. Check this video
You can reply by your choice of account, enabling you to keep your personal and professional emails separated by different accounts, yet accessible and answerable from one single account. Here’s a detailed screenshot enhanced post about this feature on MakeTech easier. Read this Gmail tutorial for lots more info on these features.
Websites for Doctors by Plus91 lets you leverage on Google’s email offering creating social media profiles for you and letting you use your own personalized email ids.
Eg. drrajan@ivfinindia.in (www.ivfinindia.in)
2) Google Alerts
If there are certain terms you want to follow on Google and receive any new mentions directly to your email inbox, create a Google Alert. Fill in the term you need to follow, like ‘*neurology India news’* or ‘*dr. nirmal surya’* and set the frequency/type of alerts required. *Stay updated via email.*
You can also directly add such feeds to your website thus making it an information resource for others to see for a particular topic. E.g. PIPCDocs Website at the bottom left corner
3) Google Maps
Maps and *Places* allow you to mark your professional locations and timings on a map. Link this marked map within all your emails. Henceforth *all patients you email will see how to reach you easily via a map*, with additional info about consultation hours that you might want to share.
Every Website made by Plus91 comes with its own embedded Google maps to allow patients to easily track your location. E.g. Dr Karnik’s Clinics under the Location Tab
You don’t need to always go to Pubmed for all your medical searches. Head to Google Scholar and do any *advanced search* (author, type, publication year and lots more filters). You will get More Results. You will search more medical databases. Try it
.
Plus91 has numerous initiatives to help promote your website using information tools like slideshare and Collaborative Online Journals like Indian Health Journal which will get you listed sooner than later.
Online videos are the most important medical info resource. But you don’t need to create videos to run a medical educational channel for your patients. Just create a channel by free login and start marking as *favourite the best medical education videos* you think might help your patients. Set channel settings to demonstrate your video favourites. You can also create multiple playlists on multiple topics and share them separately. Thus, you have a full blown video channel. Zero cost!
Now create your own You Tube channel with us at Websites for Doctors and upload videos of surgeries, patient testimonials and also a tour of your clinic.
We are planning another post on 5 Advanced and Free Google tools For Medical Practitioners. If you want to read that soon, *Share this*. If you need help with any of the above tools, comment below.
Article by: Dr Neelesh Bhandari and Co-edited by Aditya Patkar
