Building a Professional Brain-Trust

“Google it!” -My favorite all time response to -well- just about everything. But usually one ‘google’ leads to another and sometimes, leads to more frustration. When researching a medical topic, it’s difficult to read less than half a dozen published articles before moving ahead with a sense of a trust. Then again, who really has that much time on their hands? Having a personal network of peers could retrieve an immediate trustworthy solution.

Not a new concept, collaborative networks focusing on the medical community has been around for ages. Back in the 19^th century, Sir William Osler, the first professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, initiated a peer to peer teaching forum to discuss specific cases. This became known as a “grand round”. The medical group of advisors assured the physician that he/she was making the best prognosis for optimal results. This forum is forever present, especially in teaching hospitals across the globe.

As medical professionals grew into their own specialties, grand rounds, in a sense, transformed into different platforms; individual phone calls, mastermind groups, network memberships, to name a few. Building these cultures have made a meaningful difference. Today, it’s easier than ever for clinicians to keep up to date on relevant and interesting cases and best practices for managing patient care through these outlets.

I personally have been networking my entire professional career and I highly value its importance for all professionals, but particularly physicians and clinicians. Investing your time in building and developing relationships with other providers may not necessarily translate into immediate profits for your practice, but it will build strong alliances and provide many other additional benefits.

If you want it to be you that everyone knows, refers to and recommends, you have to be a good networker and be comfortable building relationships.

The Importance of Networking in Healthcare Today

Healthcare providers are some of the busiest people on the planet, and they’re often so dedicated to their patients that they don’t spend a lot of time networking outside of their workplaces. However, collaborating with other doctors, nurses, and clinicians is crucial as traditional approaches to practicing medicine are continually being re-examined, formulated and replaced. Networking can also help you privately assess where you are, where you’re going, and where you could be going, and it can introduce you to new friends that may one day become colleagues or research partners.

Top 8 Reasons to Start Building a Professional Brain Trust

DRIVING WORD-OF-MOUTH RECOMMENDATIONS. This is the essential reason for any type of networking. ALL successful businesses are built of referrals.
ENCOURAGING MENTORS. Networking helps you to find others with similar or completely different practice experience who are often very willing to share their personal knowledge with you. Successful practitioners are by nature generous helpers with a great willingness to share, particularly with advice.
GETTING NEW IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS. Meeting other practitioners who have successfully implemented new techniques and procedure offerings is a fantastic way of learning new ways to help your patients, all the while drastically reducing the learning curve for you! Meeting practitioners who have the same difficulties but are willing to share their solutions is great encouragement.
BUILDING YOUR OWN BRAND STORY. Building your personal brand makes you visible to your patients and/or clients as well as your peers.
BOOSTS YOUR SELF-ESTEEM AND BUILDS CONFIDENCE. We all need a boost sometimes! We are social beings and it feels good to share and connect, especially with other like-minded professionals. It gives great meaning and purpose to our professions.
FINDING INSPIRATION. Entrepreneurial practitioners share a common energy. Mixing with other like-minded physicians who forged a path outside the constraints of traditional healthcare – in an effort to get the edge on their competitors and to offer the absolute best patient outcome – is always an inspiration.
FINDING SUPPLIERS. Networking is a great way to find the best suppliers and to build value-for-money relationships. Whatever sort of supplier you are looking for, whether it is for marketing help, equipment and devices, or resources for learning, you will come across them all in your networks. Finding these resources through networking often provides opportunities for two-way business.
MAKING GREAT NEW FRIENDS. Although we focus on business, networking can also bring you wonderful new friends. It can’t fail to! You share your ideas, your goodwill and your enthusiasm for business with like-minded people. Strong friendships combined with strong business alliances are very powerful forces in building your network.

Let’s face it, thanks to google, information is accessible in seconds. Furthermore, the top searched topics across the internet are health related. As a practitioner, this can be very helpful, AND very hurtful. Your patients are educating themselves, they are the consumers, and consumers drive demand. If you aren’t offering the most current, effective treatment solutions, they will find someone who is.

Humans are naturally inclined to trust each other so years of personal experience should out-weigh the google prospective. Connection, discussion, education, insight, theory, observation -all contribute to advance the progress of medicine. Furthermore, when you are practicing more advanced fields like regenerative medicine, it’s critical to be aligned with fellow “pioneers” who are working together as a group to help advance the science as the research shakes out.

Yes, the internet is a brilliant resource, but the value of utilizing the advice from high-level peers offers a fresh perspective, thought provoking conversations and connections that will last a lifetime.

To learn how you can become a member of one of the nation’s largest medical networks in many different areas of specialty including sexual medicine, hair regrowth, aesthetics, dermatology, pain management and orthopedics, call 561-408-7248 or email info@specialtymedtraining.com.

AUTHOR: JILL SWARTZ, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT

Bringing nearly two decades of business consulting experience to the cash-based, concierge medicine arena, Jill and her dynamic team of expert insiders know exactly what it takes to navigate this exciting and profitable field of medical enterprise.

Her company is leading the industry helping practitioners expand their knowledge, skills and treatment options for their patients. Under her direction, and always with an unyielding focus on improving patient lives and advancing the field of medicine, Specialty MED Training has quickly become the most recognized and respected name in physician led, hands-on and online medical training and business consulting.