Podiatrists had larger digital footprint vs. foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons
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CHICAGO — Results presented here showed podiatrists had a larger digital footprint compared with foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons, with increased digital engagement for podiatrists in suburban and rural areas.
“[Foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons] should consider search engine optimization and saturation strategies,” Benjamin Je Lin Chiang, MD, said in his presentation at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. “These can happen at multiple levels. At the group practice level, these strategies may include technical aspects, such as authenticating and creating a website with the proper security that doesn’t block users from accessing it. At the organizational or individual levels, orthopedic surgeons can directly curate the pages with patient education and add more information, as more information can lead to more optimal page placement.”
Chiang and colleagues divided U.S. ZIP codes into urban, suburban and rural groups based on population density, and randomly selected 50 ZIP codes from each division for a total of 150 ZIP codes. Researchers also generated nine foot and ankle search terms based on Google key words with high search frequency and classified the first 10 results of each search into categories based on whether these were review sites, face pages, educational pages, social media, news articles or other. Researchers analyzed site content and reference and identified these as either podiatry or foot and ankle orthopedist oriented.
“We also normalized between the number of podiatrists and foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons based on the number of providers from each population density area,” Chiang said. “We calculated a ratio of each group, which then was about eight to 10 podiatrists per foot and ankle orthopedist.”
Among 13,500 results collected, Chiang noted podiatry-related information accounted for approximately 37% of the results, while foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon-related information accounted for 3%.
“When we compared these results statistically, podiatry has more results than [foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons] overall in every category except for news,” Chiang said.
After normalization, Chiang said foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons had more results in urban areas, while podiatrists had more results in suburban and rural areas on a provider basis.
“Descriptive terms all favored podiatrists, and diagnostic terms were more mixed, with one out of the six terms favoring [foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons],” Chiang said.
Perspective
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One’s digital identity may involve social media across many different platforms. Such a presence helps market one’s professional brand and educate patients in need of foot and ankle care. A recent study released shows that podiatrists have a larger digital footprint than orthopedic surgeons, and that could mean some patients go elsewhere for their foot and ankle care.
While both professions offer solutions for patients, their clinical trainings are different.
Orthopedic surgeons attend 4 years of medical school and then 5 years of orthopedic surgery residency, followed by 1 year of foot and ankle fellowship. That is 6 years of musculoskeletal orthopedic surgery training after medical school.
It is important orthopedic surgeons reach the same online audience as podiatrists. Turn to search-engine optimization and get your name and brand out to the public. If you are part of a large health system, like I am, utilize your online presence.
By not doing so, many patients will end up making the choice to seek care elsewhere. Knowing the current state of health care communication, this study highlights the importance for orthopedic foot and ankle surgeons to be present with an active digital identity through the platform of their choice.
Reference:
Garofolo-Gonzalez G, et al. Foot Ankle Orthop. 2021;doi:10.1177/2473011420981926.
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Gu A, et al. Paper 574. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. March 22-26, 2022; Chicago.
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