For the last 5 days we’ve been working on creating this list, and, in a word we’re flabbergasted!
Our work has been based on what to us is a simple concept. In a word, that out there in Sydney there would be dermatologists with ordinary email addresses who, if we emailed them asking if helping people with skin discolouration was one of their areas of specialisation, would come back with a “Yes” or “No” answer – after all, how long does it take to send back a one word answer.
Behind this concept was the idea that you would think that it would be much better for all concerned if the dermatologists only worked in areas in which they were specialists instead of floundering around in areas in which they didn’t really know what they were talking about. It would obviously be far better for the patients. But you’d think it would be better for the dermatologists as well.
Probably our aim was to locate 5 to 8 dermatologists who would answer “Yes” – after all how many doctors for each problem area we have do we need.
Use this link to check out how we’ve got on so far. So far we’ve researched 52 dermatologists, 15 who have ordinary email addresses. (Many don’t have email forms, don’t even have fax numbers!) We’ve emailed our standard letter to the 15 with ordinary email addresses and guess how many replies we’ve got which we would consider even remotely satisfactory? – none!
We haven’t heard from 13 – we’ve only got 2 replies all together!
In the first one we got an email, which was followed up with other emails, from a front desk person who just kept hassling us to make an appointment while, at the same time implying that her employer knew everything about everything. And then this morning we got one from one of the front desk people of a Dr Roderick Gillespie saying, “Dr Gillespie is a specialist for all skin conditions including skin discolouration!!!!!????” Grrr! Grrr!
No doubt Dr Gillespie has instructed his front desk people, “If anyone asks if I’m a specialist in a particular area, just tell them I’m a universal genius who knows everything about everything – no doubt some of them will be stupid enough to believe it, and I’ll get a few consultations out of it.”