5 Quick Wins for New Physician Onboarding

In my former life as a hospital marketing manager, I wore many hats. I was the t-shirt orderer, the weekly newsletter deployer, the website updater, the flyer designer, the community event planner, and beyond.

Looking back over my four years in this role, one of the most consistent responsibilities I can recall is my collaboration with the physician liaisons to help with new physician onboarding and outreach. Whether coordinating a segment on the local television station, generating a “Welcome” print ad for the local medical news, or adding the physician to the hospital website, I often worked to immerse new doctors into our community and help build up their practice.

While we did utilize paid tactics for many outreach efforts, there are also a variety of low-to no-cost ways we used as well. Here are five cost-effective ways to generate buzz and excitement as part of your physician onboarding process.

1. Arrange for local speaking engagements
   Connect with local senior centers, schools, health and wellness facilities, libraries, nursing homes, etc., as a first step in immersing the new physician into the community. The executive directors of these organizations are always looking for speakers to fill up an event calendar; chances are, you won’t be denied. A “Lunch & Learn” event is always a hit, especially if you’re featuring a specialty physician. 
   
   
2. Piggyback off of research
   Your new rockstar physician is a rockstar for a reason.  Dig into their past accolades. Have they led any clinical trials or major research studies?  What articles have they published?  Are there any cutting-edge techniques they have pioneered? Use all of this great information to emphasize why they are such a valuable asset to the patients in your local community. This is a great way to generate content for future blog and social media posts, press releases, advertisements, and more. 
   
   
3. Optimize Doximity profile
   Before any patient acquisition campaigns or strategies are executed on behalf of your new rockstar provider, update your new physician’s Doximity profile with as much accurate information as possible. Not only does this data feed the physician’s consumer-facing U.S. News profile, but it’s also helpful for connecting with potential referring physicians. The more robust the profile, the better!
   
   
4. Encourage them to write an Op-Med
   A great way for a new physician to showcase thought leadership and gain exposure is by authoring content for Op-Med, Doximity’s platform for physician-written articles. This collection of blog-style posts, interviews, and opinion pieces provide members with a safe place to relay their unique experiences and perspectives.
   
   Articles submitted to Op-Med have the potential to be featured in Doximity's weekly digest emails, sent to thousands of physician members. Articles can also be added to the physician’s own Doximity profile and shared on Doximity’s newsfeed of medicine. Find out more about Op-Med here.
   
   
5. Rethink video content
   It’s common for marketing teams to produce an introduction video when a new provider comes on board. However, most of the time, the video is intended to target patients directly and is not at all clinical, which does not resonate with a physician audience.
   
   Next time you find yourself in a video shoot, consider capturing footage of the physician speaking to their peers and potential referrers about their accolades, experience, clinical interests, unique talents, and why they are the best choice for patient referrals. This content can be used on physician-facing platforms like Doximity to build referral relationships and drive patient acquisition.