Yahoo! recently made a huge change to benefit search advertisers by finally (after getting around intellectual property restrictions) allowing reasonable geo-targeting. Yet Yahoo! has not made a big deal about it. My data suggests that the prior lack of reasonable geo-targeting really hurt Yahoo! vs. Google among knowledgeable search advertisers. My data also predicts that Yahoo! search revenue could dramatically shrink because of it but this is necessary because prior Yahoo! search advertising costs were unnecessarily high before the geo-targeting initiative.

Yahoo! will have to prepare for lower search revenue while also considering unique patentable ways to get Internet users to choose it for search over Google. This could include a points system like that used by the credit card companies.

Read the Wall Street Journal article.

I agree with Mr. Weldon’s vision. Information-technology companies can be an important way for J&J to grow as television and print media decrease in importance. Information-technology can also prove to be an important conduit, e.g. consolidation or online medical records, to help overcome serious problems in American healthcare delivery. Consolidation in healthcare need not be the top-heavy, paternalistic Management Service Organizations of the 90’s. Instead it could become regional centers of excellence and J&J can be a leader.

www.1dentist.com/about discusses what we have done over ten years combining premium private dental practice in mid-town Manhattan, pre-dental and dental school education, oral care products and internet dentistry. It works on a small scale and there is no reason it could not be rolled out into regional centers of excellence.

Some will understandably question the financial links of companies to healthcare but at least it can be openly disclosed. Many academic institutions and peer-reviewed journals cannot make this claim.

Read the Wall Street Journal Article.

Yahoo! recently made a dramatic change in their geographic search algorithm yet I have not read anything about it on WSJ or NYT. Why? It might be the best thing they have done in years!

Why should a practicing dentist and professor care? Dentistry has historically ranked among the top ten advertising categories from the ancient times of Yellow Pages printed books to the current Internet age. The metrics are more statistically predictable and without the degree of volatility of other top ten categories. Ten years of Internet dentistry metrics can be used to predict the direction of companies like Google and Yahoo!

Read the Wall Street Journal Article.

WSJ readers may enjoy “Update: Usual, Customary and Reasonable (UCR) Terminology”
by Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman, published in the American Dental Association News, April 2000.

Excerpts:

I asked the President and CEO of Aetna U.S. Healthcare about the UCR issue at the Bear Stearn 12th Annual Health Care Conference in New York this past fall [September 1999]. I was subsequently asked to leave the conference. Are readers aware that Aetna will soon insure close to ten percent of the people in this country? Persistent letter writing and phone calls to Aetna paid off with the eloquent response below. I still don’t believe that Aetna’s Chief Medical Officer ever answered my question; will Aetna consider using the term ‘maximum plan allowance’ rather than ‘usual, customary and reasonable.’

And,

Addendum: In December 1999 the CEO of Aetna was forced out of the company. A Wall Street Journal article at that time pointed to investor discontent that began in September 1999 that led to his ouster.

Read the Wall Street Journal article.

Walgreen should be commended for making an effort to control health care costs while increasing access to care but the article does not discuss a critical part of the plan; who are the doctors and dentists entrusted with running this program and what is their expertise? How does Walgreen hope to attract and retain doctors and dentists in this program other than recent grads who will plan to leave for private practice after two years? What differentiates this program from prior failed attempts at running Management Service Organizations that were prevalent last decade and have since died?

Providing basic medical and dental checkups and preventive care at work can be a great time savings to employers and improve health care to employees but what mechanism was created for quality control of this care? How will attracting “frugal” customers contribute to Walgreen’s bottom line? In 23 years of premium private practice I have found patients are able to pay for premium services they value. How will the Walgreen plan create perceived value and branding to the employee-customer-patients?

Health care is overly fragmented and should be consolidated. Health care costs are also spirally out of control, but as I have published years ago, it is at least partially a result of Wall Street salaries spirally out of control.

When a large company like Walgreen successfully creates a program like the one being described it will only be a question of time before it begins to compete with health insurers, especially for dentistry and pharmaceuticals where usage is statistically predictable.

I would like to learn more details about the Complete Care and Well-Being program.

Read the Wall Street Journal article

Solta CEO Stephen J. Fanning is right on target. It is a great time to buy companies and Thermage’s web-based physician loyalty program can dramatically increase new patient appointments at a time when most doctors are struggling like the rest of the world. Solta should be worth following. Cosmetic Dentistry, Reproductive Endocrinology (In vitro fertilization) and Plastic Surgery are three areas of elective health care that patients seek out and frequently pay for without third party payments.

1dentist, LLC has been successfully providing new patient appointments to dentists worldwide since 1998. We are content creators whose main content website, www.NYCdentist.com, offers over 2,100 pages of exclusive free content in dentistry. Our main URL website, www.1dentist.com, displays 500 of the best URLs in dentistry worldwide. The sites generate 150,000 monthly visitors and 1.5 million page views per month with a stickiness of seven minutes as measured by Urchin. Our business is profitable and has no debt.

Mr. Fanning might want to take a look.

Read the Wall Street Journal article

NYCdentist.com had over 120,000 unique visitors with a stickiness over six minutes in November 2008 as measured by Urchin. It provides over 2,100 pages of free content in dentistry. NYCdentist.com is one of 500 great dental urls owned by 1dentist.com. These sites are written and published as a part-time hobby by a NYC dental school professor. Profitably online since 1998 with no debt. Will the companies listed in this article like EveryDayHealth, Google/Health or HealthCentralNetwork consider running this business while we focus on content creation?

Read the Wall Street Journal article.

Oral care companies like P&G that directly sell to the consumer, and dental product companies like Henry Schein, that directly sell to doctors and dentists, still really don’t understand the importance of – and utilize – the internet. Why focus on segmental marketing when a roll-up is staring you in the face?

Unified dental websites, should combine dental content & services for new patient appointments, dental lab sales, dental product and software sales, consumer product, data mining and SEO in ONE website experience. Tax-advantaged mentoring programs can also be facilitated online to help alleviate our crisis in health care delivery.

Visit demo.dentistChicago.com to see the latest pre-Beta projects under development at 1dentist, LLC.

[1dentist, LLC, established in 1998, is the worlds largest creator of free online content in dentistry and owns 500 of the best worldwide collection of urls in dentistry.]

Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman, Director
The Center for Special Dentistry
NYCdentist.com
1dentist.com
425 Madison Avenue – Suite 500
(at 49th Street)
New York, NY 10017

Assistant Professor, Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery
Associate Professor, New York University College of Dentistry

And,

Combining free medical advice with product sales should not distort medical advice and reduce customer/patient trust. It is advantageous to the public (patients, students and doctors) to obtain this information. Full disclosure is essential – unlike many peer-reviewed medical journals where authors hide financial conflicts.
Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman

And,

The “Roll Up” I described was specifically about the current state of segmented internet marketing in dentistry and that it could be more efficient (for patients, students, doctors and companies) if offered in ONE website experience. I did not suggest down-waging, but since you mention it, I am also against it.

Since it was mentioned, I’ll state my opinion on dental office consolidation. Dental offices are among the most expensive medical spaces to build and equip, after radiology (with their CT and MRI machines). Many of them operate well below efficient capacity. It would be logical if more dental practices consolidated among themselves (and NOT with Wall Street spawn). This would also improve patient care as more dentists and specialists work together in the same office they would be readily available to discuss more complex cases. Dental offices should become more like dental hospitals.
Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman

Read the Wall Street Journal article.

Six third year dental students from NYU College of Dentistry were chosen today to study at The Center for Special Dentistry for the next 18 months.  These six students were chosen from an applicant pool of 50.  There were so many eager and talented students that we increased acceptances from four positions in last year’s group.  Students study super premium multi-specialty cosmetic and reconstructive dentistry at The Center for Special Dentistry.  The best of these students are considered for rejoining our practice after completion of their dental residency and/or specialty programs.

Thank you to all the wonderful professionals in your dental office that are making the smile of my dreams a reality!

Happy New Year!

C.R.