Spotlight ON TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUE

Your Waiting Room as Theater:

The Vue Eye Channel Both Educates and Builds Revenue.

By Robert Murphy, Contributing Editor

There's a new way to educate and entertain patients about your products and procedures as well as convey any news about the office, such as the arrival of a new doctor on staff. It's called the Vue Eye Channel, from VueCare Media in Columbia, Maryland. The channel provides content on a TV screen right in your waiting room and should easily generate more viewer interest than the typical weeksold magazines that are found in most doctors' offices.

Growing Through Word-Of-Mouth

Eschewing, for now, any marketing expenditures, four-year-old VueCare Media has seen sales of its Vue Eye Channel expand rapidly, thanks almost exclusively to word-of-mouth testimonials from doctors who already have the service installed and who have seen its results.

“Doctors use it and they rave about it, they just love it,” says VueCare Executive Director and Co-Founder Shiva Ghahremani, who formerly managed multiple ophthalmology practices.

What's there to love? For one thing, doctors can customize the content by selecting from VueCare Media's library specially tailored for ophthalmology. A majority 75% to 80% of the content is typically selected by the individual doctor, according to the company Web site. If you have your own clips or promotional pieces, the company can add them to their content library. The practice logo appears unobtrusively on the screen.

Customized Content

Add to that the capacity to present news, weather, sports or stock quotes scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Here, doctors can also include messages specific to their offices, such as descriptions of new products or procedures.

“We believe that the waiting room is a space that has not been used wisely in ophthalmology,” Ms. Ghahremani says.

VueCare Media also provides each user with a dedicated account manager whose job is to help customers manage content and flow. Practitioners can make their own content changes or have the account manager do it for them — a handy service for a busy practice. Because the content is transmitted to the waiting room digitally, doctors can go online and revise the programming while, say, at a conference or on vacation. Any change to the programming appears within a period of 12 to 24 hours.

A Revenue Enhancement Tool

Ms. Ghahremani sees the Vue Eye Channel as a great marketing tool. Not only can patients learn about the latest products, services, or changes to the office, but so too can a friend, relative or caregiver accompanying the patient.

“It really does increase [the doctor's] revenue,” Ms. Ghahremani says. “It's the best way to increase the level of education for your patients, and through that, increase your revenue.”

In 2010 VueCare Media added to its product line the Vue Simulator, prompted by the suggestion of a doctor who wanted it in his exam room. That product is designed to provide concise and authoritative explanations of conditions and procedures that can be quickly understood by patients.

Here's What it Costs

The Eye Channel Network, its content and a dedicated account manager is available to ophthalmology practices for a monthly fee of $49.95. To facilitate acquisition and installation of the TV, VueCare Media contracts with a third-party vendor for $495. There's also a $695 up-front set-up and licensing fee, but the company often waives that as a special for those who sign up at a conference or trade show. OM

Robert Murphy is a freelance medical journalist in Philadelphia.