Mar Fuentes
UK Sales Director, Top Doctors
By using advanced screening methods, finding the ‘perfect match’ is now possible for patients and doctors — saving time along the way.
Finding an expert based on your medical needs is now made easier. Patients can consult the best doctor for them without leaving the comfort of their homes. Mar Fuentes, UK Sales Director at Top Doctors, explains: “What’s different at Top Doctors is everything we do is based on quality. We want to optimise the patient journey and patient experience.”
Finding the best doctor for each patient’s needs
The healthcare company has identified, audited, and selected 3,834 leading specialists clinics, psychologists and dentists in the UK.
“Health providers need to be screened in order to distinguish who is the best consultant or the best hospital for each patient. We then give this information to the patient,” explains Fuentes. “The average patient in the UK needs to consult 2.5 doctors before finding the right one. According to our data, 94% of our patients say they found the right doctor — and the correct diagnosis — in the first appointment.” In the past year, 31,000 unique patient appointments in the UK have been booked using the online platform.
A selection of only the best doctors in their speciality
The rigorous selection process means only one in five doctors is selected. They select the best clinics or specialists in each medical speciality by using a nomination process by other specialists. Their careers are thoroughly audited, before being presented to a panel of clinical leaders. They then face a gruelling interview.
“On the one hand, we have the patient who has a particular need for a hyper-expert to give them treatment optimisation. But we also have very specialised doctors who want to be put in touch with the correct patients,” explains Fuentes. “For example, a knee surgeon isn’t looking to treat a broken leg.
“The doctor reduces the number of patients they cannot help because they are outside their expertise and increases the time spent with a patient. The match optimisation is therefore win-win. It also benefits insurers because when you get care right early on, patients are less likely to need a second surgery and are less likely to get complications from delay in treatment.”
Patients can struggle to get objective data
on doctors because, ultimately, there
is not one authoritative source.
Artificial intelligence narrows down the best doctors
The secret to creating the perfect matches lies in the use of specialist artificial intelligence: “Patients can struggle to get objective data on doctors because, ultimately, there is not one authoritative source,” says Fuentes.
“We use artificial intelligence to help patients screen the doctors. We gather information on the internet and, using AI, can measure if it is coming from a reliable source. Our AI is programmed to try and think for itself. It collects data from doctors’ websites, LinkedIn, hospitals, BUPA and journal entries to assess their level of expertise. In the end, we can accurately tell patients they are a leading expert in a particular area.”
Doctors moving to a customer-centric service before Covid-19 were only focused on the medical care, giving less importance to the other steps of the patient journey. “For example, a lot of doctors didn’t like e-consultations. However this was demanded by the patient. In the end, doctors implemented it because they had to.”
Now, doctors increasingly understand that they need to grow in the digital era. With the internet and technology, patients have easy access to more information — and they can get it quicker.
“If you lived in a small village, you might have struggled to find a provider. Now, you can get information beyond your locality. Our survey tells us 80% of our patients would travel for care. Our overriding message is that the health system needs to produce value-based healthcare, and it’s only right that patients’ expectations are met,” concludes Fuentes.