Internet medical operation (5): patient operation

In this article, we will talk about the operation of patients. Generally speaking, patients are our C-end users. In Internet companies, it means user operations, and both doctors and patients will be involved.

The basic function of patient operation is greater than that of user operation. Many doctor-patient platforms will have a dedicated patient side, which involves the operation of this patient-side product. Here, our patient operation refers to the overall operation of the party who has a demand for medical health in Internet medical care.

The needs of patients

A patient, literally, refers to a person who suffers from a disease and suffers from the pain of the disease, which means that there are some problems with the health of this group and need professional medical treatment. Everyone was taught Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in middle school.

Similarly, we can also divide human needs for medical care into five categories:

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Figure 1: Hierarchy of Medical Needs

In the above figure, the level of medical needs of patients is divided into 5 layers.

Demand for disease treatment: If you have serious diseases, you must go to the hospital to see a doctor to maintain your life. The treatment of these diseases is usually covered by medical insurance;

The need for rehabilitation medicine: to allow patients to recover from acute exacerbations of chronic diseases or after surgical treatment;

Special medical needs: to maintain human reproduction or self-transformation, and have no direct relationship with the patient's life and death;

Health care needs: to maintain people's health and prevent the occurrence of diseases;

The need for health promotion: maintaining the quality of life, achieving a healthy longevity, and enjoying a happy life

——The needs of each level are gradually ascending.

On the current Internet medical platform, the most common patients are from the first to the second level. They prolong their lives in order to cure the disease and better survive with the disease. The needs at this level are also generally guaranteed by the national medical insurance and commercial insurance. scope.

The third to fifth levels of people have been separated from the need for "disease" treatment, and the corresponding services are basically at the level of "consumer medical care". This level is usually paid by users at their own expense, and users are very willing to pay for precise needs. powerful.

2. The classic model of user operation

AARRR is a classic model of user operation in the Internet industry, which uses the user's product life cycle as a clue to obtain continuous income for enterprises. Intuition tells us that the operation of patients in Internet medical care must not be as simple as pulling new ones, retaining them, and transforming them.

Moreover, there are two bugs in the application country email list of the AARRR model in Internet medical care.

First, the user traffic of Internet medical care cannot be monetized through the advertising model. The final consumers of drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies are patients. In the model of consumer Internet, pharmaceutical companies should play the role of advertisers. However, in the medical industry, the law stipulates that drugs Companies are prohibited from contacting patients, and drug marketing can only be done to doctors.

Therefore, the path to attract users through free consultations and then monetize through advertisements is blocked.

Second, the last R in the model, Refer (user self-propagation), is difficult to achieve in the medical industry. Even if people who are sick are well treated, they are reluctant to "post" information on the Internet. Coming out, without the spontaneous spread of users means that our customer acquisition cost will not be diluted by scale.

Of course, if the products you are operating have a clear business model, such as pure pharmaceutical e-commerce, with the help of the AARRR model, you can create a set of clear business realization paths, and you will follow the e-commerce platform's gameplay more in terms of customer acquisition.

The business model of Internet medical care is still being explored, the situation is still unclear, and it may change at any time with the release of new policies. Let’s take a different perspective and talk about how to get patients to recognize the products and services you operate.

3. Occupy the patient's mind

We usually decide which hospital to go to based on the popularity of the hospital, distance and convenience. When we have a cold or fever, we go to a nearby hospital for a blood test and prescription.

There are some suspicious indicators in the physical examination, and when it is necessary to re-examine, I tend to find a local high-profile hospital. If you suspect that you may have a more serious disease, you should try to find a doctor who is well-known in his field as much as possible.

In the scenario of Internet medical care, some offline medical treatment links have been moved online. What is the basis for us to choose hospitals and doctors online?

The purpose of our patient operation is to immediately think of our products when a patient has a medical need. Whether the medical services provided by the product correspond to the needs of nearby offline, well-known, or TOP10 professional fields, patients will naturally have their own judgments after using them.

What the patient operation needs to do is to subtly enter the patient's journey to see a doctor, to influence the patient's evaluation under the fixed thinking mode, and to occupy the patient's mind.

What is mind? The mind is a habitual choice that people make in a complex environment. Cognition built to protect yourself from being deceived. Applicable to medical scenarios, it is a judgment made by patients based on their own cognition.

When we think of registering an appointment, we will open WeDoctor; if we want to find a well-known doctor in a tertiary-grade hospital, we will go to a good doctor; if we want to get an immediate response to a consultation, we will use Ping An Good Doctor; if we want to buy medicines as quickly as possible, Dingdang is fast. Medicine for 28 minutes should be the first choice.

How did these deeply rooted impressions of Internet medical products come about?

Some people will immediately think that the product promotion department can think of a slogan for the product, and it can be achieved by placing some building advertisements. Or build a point system and give users a little favor from time to time to achieve this.

Yes, these methods can touch our users at a certain moment, but to really occupy a place in the minds of patients, we have to systematically plan to do them, and work slowly and carefully.

We divide the process of occupying the patient's mind into four steps, which are "Know-Remember-Think-Trust".

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Figure 2: Four steps to occupy the patient's mind