How Can I Help?

I have a friend who says that "How Can I Help" is one of his favorite sentences. It's especially wonderful when it comes, say, from a member of your family when you're folding laundry.

Okay, so Xoova won't fold your laundry, but our aim is definitely to help.

Our goal, to be a "self evident site," means that everyone will quickly and easily be able to find the local doctor they need. As of 11:57am Tuesday, October 16th, we're not quite there yet. Fortunately, there is a human being at the Xoova Help Desk. That human being (me) uses these emails to help our developer determine what people are looking for, what's stumping our users in search, and how to make the site better.

Here are samples of email I was able to answer:

"Looking for James Lee MD @sloan kettering in Commack. Trying to find out something about him. Thanks"

"Do you have any information on a Dr. Alexander Stratienko in the Chattanooga, TN area?"

Here are samples of emails that helped us make the site better:

"Your site fails to locate an osteopath physician in either Charlottesville or Richmond, VA.  I can't believe there isn't one located in either of these cities."

"How can there be no orthopedic surgeons in Michigan? When I search by specialty and include Michigan, I get no results???"

And then there was this:

"I need to know if there are any Doctors that do Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for treatment Please respond Thanks"

That one stumped me.

But good news. Xoova is on the cusp of making the terms within a doctor's enhanced profile searchable. People will be able to search, nationwide, on  treatments and procedures (no matter how obscure) that doctors include in their descriptions of personal clinical interests.

And they'll be able to search on a number of other things, too.

With the new search you'll be able to find a Harvard Educated Doctor who is practicing in Santa Monica. With the new search you'll be able to find a doctor who specializes in sleep apnea in Atlanta. And with the new search, you'll be able to find the doctor in Palo Alto who performs "transcranial magnetic stimulation."

His name is Brett Solvason.