Intuition Communication, the healthcare web publishing business has found the secret of turning online patient traffic into profit.
As the web has developed, more and more patients are going online for information about diseases, conditions, and treatments, but few healthcare information publishers have established a model that generates profit from the high levels of patient traffic.
Intuition Communication is in its 5th trading year and runs a family of healthcare information sites that includes Private Healthcare UK and Treatment Abroad, attracting over half a million visitors every month.
Conceived by Keith Pollard, founder of Intuition Communication, the Private Healthcare UK website has been online for over ten years. He began investing in the development of the site five years ago, with the publishing philosophy of “helping patients to make the right choice”. He made a profit in his first year, and employed his first sales person in 2005; he currently employs ten people at the head office in Berkhamsted and 15 “virtual” workers as far afield as Brighton and Marbella. Next year the business is forecasting a turnover of £2m.
Keith Pollard embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of the web and knows how to see an opportunity and make a profit from it. “I realised that the web would become the first port of call for patients seeking information about healthcare services and treatments. We have found the way to monetarise web traffic and have made a profit from day one. We provide patients with information that informs and helps them make the right choice of treatment or healthcare provider; we enable healthcare providers to communicate with and access patients who are in “active buying” mode.
Pollard believes the credit crunch will have little effect on the healthcare market; people are always going to get ill and are always going to need and want information about their condition and treatment options, whether at home or abroad. The business will be unaffected by the current economic downturn, and will continue to show impressive growth.
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In the past year, Private Healthcare UK has climbed from 50th position to 17th in the Hitwise* league table of UK health and medical web sites.
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Revenues on the Treatment Abroad and Private Healthcare websites are growing at over 50% pa.
The company is actively investing in new sites such as OHS Directory, (a portal for the occupational health sector) and additional country specific medical tourism sites such as Treatment in Spain, Treatment in Cyprus and Treatment in Hungary.
Intuition Communication’s plans for growth include franchising their technology and business model overseas, and are currently in talks with potential franchisees in Australia, Malta and the Arab states. They are also looking to acquire other healthcare information websites that are generating high traffic but failing to exploit the commercial opportunities.
Intuition Communication also has two not for profit websites, Self Help UK which provides a searchable database of over 1,000 self-help and patrient support organisations and Cancer Advice, providing expert advice from leading cancer specialists. Eighteen months ago Pollard sold a major share in the business to Dr Nick Plowman, a cancer specialist at Barts Hospital who is the Medical Director of Intuition.
Editor’s notes:
Turnover since start up:
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2003/4
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2004/2005
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2005/2006
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2006/2007
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2007/2008
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2008/2009
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121,000
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£204,000
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£415,000
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£722,000
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£1,100,000
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£2,000,000
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www.privatehealthcare.co.uk - The UK’s largest online private health care guide.
www.treatmentabroad.com - the UK's leading guide to health and medical tourism, covering over 30 destinations worldwide.
www.treatmentinhungary.net - a health tourism site with a specific focus on Hungary.
www.treatmentincyprus.com - a health tourism site with a specific focus on Cyprus.
www.treatmentinspain.com - a health tourism site with a specific focus on Spain.
www.harleystreetguide.co.uk - provides comprehensive information about this world famous area of medical excellence.
www.self-help.org.uk- a searchable database of over 1,000 self help organisations and support groups across the UK that provide support, guidance and advice to patients, carers and their relatives.
* Hitwise (www.hitwise.co.uk) monitors the activity of 8.43 million UK Internet users and more than 1 million websites.
