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Clear.md – Using Video to Harness Physician Expertise

August 21, 2012 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: 2 minutes

A while back I suggested that it would be amazing if we could harness just some of doctors know.  If we could record and repurpose their wisdom and stories it would represent a key resource for students and patients.  It turns out there’s a company looking to tap that physician mindshare one short video at a time.  It’s Clear.md, a Minnesota-based startup with a platform that allows doctors to self-create short, focused videos for patient education.

A clear look and feel

What’s remarkable is that every doctor’s video has the same, branded Clear.md background: white.  This is achieved through the use of a small kit that participating doctors receive from Clear.md.  It consists of a pop up green screen, a tripod and an adaptor for the iPad 3 or iPhone 4S.  Within minutes a doc can be up hammering out pithy posts for patient consumption.  Once live, these videos sit on a unique Clear.md page customized for the doctor or the participating institution.

Think of this as a spot for doctors to capture their expertise for people.  A place for doctors to meet patients online.  All this makes perfect sense.  People love auditioning a doctor by video.  Have a peek at Howard Luks explaining how the rotator cuff is like an old pair of blue jeans.  These are precisely the types of analogies I use in the clinical setting.

Geotailored search for patients

What’s cool is that the clear.md platform will direct searching patients to nearby participating physicians.  For example, a patient searching Clear.md with a meniscus tear in Grand Rapids will be directed to a video produced by a local orthopod.  After seeing the clip, the limping patient then has the option to link over to that physician’s site or appointment line.

And more than geotailored marketing, Clear.md looks to offer information that can be prescribed by doctors during visits – they refer to these as vidscriptions.  The ability to link back to a practice site or the ability to send vidscriptions are part of what Clear.md will offer as a premium offering.  It’s estimated that this premium option will cost approximately 5 dollars per doctor per month.

At 3,000 videos, Clear.md’s beta site is live and they’re gearing up for production mode.  Beyond growing adoption among medical centers throughout the U.S, Clear.md’s scaleability is evident by the fact that European groups and hospitals are queuing up to take an advantage position.  CEO John Brownlee has visions of filling the search engines with millions of one-minute videos from all corners and cultures of the planet.  Wowza.

But are doctors willing to make stuff?

What has yet to be determined is whether physicians will recognize the value of Clear.md such that they take the step to create these clips.  While they are apparently really easy to create, they nonetheless need to be made.  And despite my minimalist tendencies I was initially taken back by the requirement that videos be under one minute in length.  This is in line, however, with the way folks watch video.  Solid boundaries do make for tight messaging.

I should add that Clear.md has ears.  John Brownlee reached out to me on Twitter just a couple of hours after my post on repurposing doctor knowledge.  Having leadership where the doctors are is a great start for any company looking to make a claim in this space.

More on clear.md when I pump out some vids of my own.

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Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Pediatrics Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
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