MEDPERTISE

The MEDPERTISE health portal, previously known as the surgery portal, is now presented with a new structure and expanded content. In particular, the name and the orientation of the information offered are new. How it came about, we want from Dr. Georg Mekras, operator of the health portal, know.

How did you come up with the idea of ​​running a health portal?

Dr. Georg Mekras: The idea for this health portal was born 15 years ago in cooperation with DIOmed Verlag. As a doctor, I automatically have an affinity for health issues. At that time, DIOmed Verlag published around 700 standardized patient questionnaires in 13 languages.
The information sheets helped doctors to provide patients with detailed and legally secure information before an operation. We wanted to make the publisher better known. Maybe we succeeded a little. Of course, I only say that with a wink. In 2006 Thieme took over the publishing house and the cooperation ended. In just one year it was possible to exchange all content and to continue the health offer with its own content.

Now there was a name change. How did that happen?

Dr. Georg Mekras: We had planned to do this for a long time, but so far we shied away from the effort and the associated risks. As a small team and owner-managed company, we have to carefully weigh up where we put our manpower. In the end, it became clear that we needed a new name.
We operated the portal as a surgery portal for a long time. However, surgical topics only make up a fraction of the information offered. The name has not lived up to our offer for a long time.

How did you come up with the new name?

Dr. Georg Mekras: It was a really long process. We spent many hours brainstorming, collecting ideas, getting our team involved. And whenever we liked a name, there was someone else who came up with the idea. It's amazing how difficult it is to find a good name today. In the end, we particularly liked one name: MEDPERTISE. Medical expertise. And this name works not only in German-speaking countries, but also in English-speaking countries. We feel really comfortable with it.

Why this name?

Dr. Georg Mekras: At MEDPERTISE, the gut feeling and the strategic direction of the brand were right and sums up what we stand for.
On the one hand, we offer health knowledge from experts. On the other hand, we want to help people find the right medical expert. For a long time now, specialists from various disciplines have been answering our users' questions in our discussion forum.
In the future, we want to link our content with specialists. If I have a problem as a victim, then I want to see a specialist. This does not only mean doctors, but all therapists who can offer specific help, such as alternative practitioners or physiotherapists. Our new MEDPERTISE brand underlines this.

What are you still up to?

Dr. Georg Mekras: We have a lot to do. First of all, we want to carry out a relaunch and bring the important topics forward. A health portal of this size can always be optimized. Content, technology, design - all important areas.
In the future, we want to convert our doctor search to a specialist search. Of course, our content offering should also continue to grow. We want to redesign the forum and attract even more experts.
We also plan to offer health courses online. I think that makes sense, especially in the prevention area. We have already gained our first experience and now know what we can do better in the future. We have enough ideas and work.

What's your biggest challenge?

Dr. Georg Mekras: In my opinion, it's the content. The quality of the content we write today is different than it was a few years ago. But that also means that we have a lot of topics that need to be updated. It's an ongoing process. We have a responsibility to the users and want to provide the best possible information. We have not yet succeeded in doing this in all areas, but we are developing in small steps.
Of course, financing is always a major challenge. All publishers have this problem. You have to get creative. Of course, we have a lot less budget than large publishers to implement our ideas. We are quick to implement and technically very well positioned.

Thank you for the talk!

Dr. Georg Mekras is a doctor and entrepreneur. He is the managing director at Miomedia GmbH. Miomedia GmbH has specialized in helping people to stay healthy or to get well again.