Meet Your Doctor Online

MADISON - You're surfing online, looking for a physician, and frankly, you're baffled and overwhelmed. The academic degrees. The titles. The long lists of specialties. All these are important and helpful, but what you'd really like to do is get a sense of the doctor. Who is this person to whom you'll be entrusting your medical care? What is he or she actually like?

 

You can now get a glimpse when you visit www.uwhealth.org. For the past several months, visitors to the site have been able to click on a link and view a two-to-three minute video interview with UW Health physicians representing a full range of medical specialties, from cardiology and urology to transplant and sports medicine.

 

In the videos, the physicians discuss their programs, their surgical expertise and their approaches to medicine. More important, they give patients a sense of the unique personal approach they bring to their craft.

UW Health was the first in the Madison area to develop and deploy these video clips, and patients are responding favorably. Recently, a woman in San Antonio, Texas connected her ailing mother with Niloo Edwards, MD, the head of cardiothoracic surgery at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, after viewing his physician profile.

"What we're really trying to do is make the process more personal," says Rebecca Broering, director of UW Health's e-Health office. "Choosing a doctor is one of the most important decisions people can make, and if we can give them a little bit of additional information, that's a good thing."

Video interviews with dozens of physicians are available to view online. New doctor videos will be added every month, along with footage that explains common surgical procedures and treatments.

View the UW Health physician video profiles currently available.

 

Date published: 2/22/2008