Dr. Vince Leone identifies four competitors clinicians face treating chronic neck and back pain: elite spinal surgeons, patient apathy, physical therapists and chiropractors, and online companies pushing medications and supplements. To compete, doctors need stronger clinical skills, better practice systems, and smarter marketing.
And what I would encourage doctors to think about is remember who you are competing against. So if you're going to wade into the chronic neck and back pain world, these patients, they are seeing surgeons who have been to school for probably 3 times, 14, 16 years to actually become a spinal surgeon. So these guys are alpha males. Gosh, I mean, these guys are intense. I've met them. They're very good at what they do. I never really like— I don't like to throw shade. I hate on different healthcare practices. Like, they do a good job. They're trying to do the best for their patients. But that's who you're competing against. You're also competing against apathy, one. So people just, you know, they're just going to essentially drug their way through it or just not do anything. You're also competing against physical therapists, other chiropractors, which aren't as much competition. But then also all the stuff they're being sold online. Right. 'Cause the algorithms pick up that you have these conditions and you're going to start seeing it in your Facebook feed, your Instagram feed, Google, whatever. And so now you're competing against these big companies that are really, really good at selling something, right? It could be some type of medication. It could be a supplement. It could be a device. So you want to really keep in mind, you have to become a true expert, right? Because this is who you're competing against. And so if they, come into your office and they're like, hmm, you know, this doesn't really seem like a true expert. They may— they're not going to tell you that, but that's what they're internally thinking. And maybe not even consciously, it could be subconsciously thinking that. But so just keep in mind who you're competing against. And that's why you need to raise the bar in terms of your own skill sets and systems and marketing, etc.
