What The Bean and the iPhone have that your medical practice needs, too

While in downtown Chicago for business this summer I visited The Bean in Chicago.  If you Google “the bean Chicago”, you’ll find hundreds of pictures of it.  Officially named Cloud Gate but nicknamed The Bean by locals, it’s a sculpture in downtown Chicago which looks like a giant polished steel bean.  A picture from my visit accompanies this post.    I admit that before my visit I was only casually interested in seeing it.  But walking down Michigan Avenue, I saw it, and it was like a shiny three story magnet pulling me towards it.  Walking around it, I was fascinated by the views it reflected of the Chicago skyline and other people’s reactions to it.

Last spring I needed a new cell phone, my old one was going on four years old and the screen was getting wacky.  So I decided to go for my first iPhone.  My expectation was that I would call, email, and maybe find a free app or two that were interesting.  But frankly, since I’m not a gamer or into time-wasting apps, my expectation was pretty low as to the impact a mere phone would have on my life.

That changed when I found an app I could use for bicycling.  I previously relied on 3 computing devices with three databases for biking: 1. bike computer for speed, distance and pedal rotation information; 2. wristband GPS/heart rate monitor for distance, mapping, and bio data; and 3. if I got lost, I could pull out my old smartphone and pull up a map on the small screen and maybe figure out where I was.  Now with the iPhone, I have one device with one app which collects, presents, stores, and analyses all that data.  What had previously been a frustration for me (3 databases of information), was unexpectedly solved by the iPhone.

My lasting impression of both The Bean and the iPhone will always be, “This is good in a way I didn’t expect.”  Whatever art I see in the future, whatever phone I’m using in 10 years, I’ll always remember this feeling and these products.

So my question to you is, is there something about your medical practice that will prompt your patients to say, “This is good in a way I didn’t expect”?  You can switch out “good” for interesting, or friendly, or some other superlative.  But do your patients feel they are getting some benefit, real or psychic, they didn’t expect?

Why is this important?  Because patients have more healthcare options than ever before.  Walgreens wants to not only dispense prescriptions; it wants to provide basic health services.  Grocery stores provide basic healthcare services.   And I’ve worked with franchise-type pain management and urgent care practices that are spreading around the country.  These big companies have scores of people who sit around trying to figure out what their unique benefit is for broad markets and demographics. 

But the good news for you is, you can get to know your patient community better than the big guys can.  And you can tailor your practice to your patients in a way these large companies can’t.  You just need to start doing it.