office desk

Not *exactly* what our offices look like...

Eilis is an intern working with me on our digital marketing projects. We thought it might be interesting for other employers and prospective new interns to hear first-hand what it’s like for an intern going back into an office after some time off studying. Over to Eilis:

An internship is an excellent way to gain valuable hands-on experience in an area of academic or personal interest to any individual.  Following completion of my studies in Digital Marketing, I was delighted to join the team at Whatclinic.com to put my educational knowledge into practice.  Returning to college as a mature student, I already had extensive experience of working in an office environment and I felt confident that I would slot right back in, like riding a bike.

A Wake Up Call

The reality was a little different.  Although only absent from the workplace for over a year, I was shocked at how alien it felt to me on my first day.  I somehow had forgotten the morning race to get out of the house, the fighting for personal space on public transport and the vast number of clearly mad people rushing around at 8 am.  By the time I had reached the office I was already feeling a bit dishevelled and I hadn’t turned the PC on.

My interview had taken place in the offices in Westland Row so I was familiar with the set up.   The office was open plan and had a busy but relaxed atmosphere.  When I arrived at 10 am it was really positive for me that my workstation was set up, stationery was provided and I had a company email address!

My first task was to read some manuals as an introduction to SEO and Google Analytics.  Easy peasy, I thought, until the sales team got on the phones and technical questions started flying around the place.  I couldn’t hear my own thoughts and I couldn’t filter out the background noise.  I was starting to feel like a fish out of water.

Some Advice

Now that I am nearing the end of my first week, I am feeling a bit more human.  The best advice I could give to anyone starting an internship is to avoid placing needless pressure on yourself and be realistic.  It is important to remember that an internship is an opportunity to learn and that an employer, who has already seen potential in you, does not expect you to know everything about the job.

Be organised: make a note of any passwords required for applications and bookmark any recommended links.  If you haven’t been assigned a network drive, create a personal folder and save everything in a structured manner.

The first week is all about settling in and learning about the workings of the company.  You may be required to use an email service, an application or a browser you are not familiar with.  Take the time to familiarise yourself with these tools.  Refer to manuals and help sections where possible and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Be confident: ask questions where appropriate.  Obviously in a small company it is important not to absorb too much of your colleague’s work-time, but at the same time it is imperative to grasp the basics.   Jot down your questions and arrange an appropriate time to discuss them.  At this early stage you will be mostly turning to a mentor to answer specific questions.  Be sure to make notes so you do not need to ask the same questions again.

Finally don’t be afraid to mix with the rest of the staff.  It is important to integrate; it will make your experience at the company more enjoyable and it provides you will a bigger pool of people to direct your QUESTIONS at !!

 

Tagged with:  

Blueface Business Plus VoIP Review

Blueface VoIP Logo

I’ve been using Blueface as my personal VoIP provider for the last four years, however I waited until two weeks ago to finally switch WhatClinic.com over to their Business Plus account, migrating from another well known VoIP provider.

Blueface has been in the personal VoIP market for about 5 years but despite having had something of a business offering it only seems to have really started to make progress with businesses accounts during the last 12 months.

I had been meaning to move the WhatClinic.com account for a while as we’d been experiencing intermittent quality problems with our previous VoIP provider resulting in the sales team loosing trust with them and using Skype in preference.

Setup

The setup was quick and easy and completed over the web without the need to talk to anyone in Blueface. It was easy to assign phone numbers to SIP accounts and setup the voicemail. Initially our account only came with four SIP addresses, which seemed a bit odd as it had 8 phone numbers. An email to their support department sorted this out 12 hours later at no extra charge.

We use SMON 320 phones and initially we could only make outgoing calls but not receive incoming calls. A quick look on the Blueface support forums quickly found the solution and we were up and running.

Another problem we ran into was calls were taking up to a minute to initiate, i.e. we would dial a number and it wouldn’t start to ring for up to a minute. This lasted a couple of days and eventually resolved itself without any obvious intervention. I suspect that if we had rebooted our phones it would have sorted the issue immediately.

Self Service

One of the major benefits of Blueface as compared to our previous VoiP provider is their self service interface. This allows us to monitor charges in real time as well as adding new phones and changing voicemail settings. Compared to calling a support line, this is a major time saver and gives us considerably more control. This ease of setup and control means we already have more phones working than we had with our old provider so Blueface is getting more of our business.

Quality

The primary reason we moved provider was because of the intermittent quality of our old setup. As a long term personal user I had high level of confidence that the quality was going to be good, and after two weeks of extensive usage we have found it to be consistently better than either our previous VoIP provider or Skype.

During the two week period we have experienced no quality problems, although like any VoIP provider we expect to have occasional regional outages and have prepared contingency solutions.

Price

The Blueface Business Plus package costs €69 a month and includes 8 direct dial numbers, unlimited UK and Ireland landline calls and 250 mobile minutes. Calls to our international customers are significantly lower than with Skype or our previous VoIP provider on a per minute basis. [It should be noted that Skype have several monthly subscription plans that offer significant savings over their per minute rates.]

Simply put, the price is low enough to make telephony charges to most countries a null issue.

Problems

The phone numbers we were assigned were not all in sequence and neither were our voicemail accounts. It would seem to me that this would be a normal requirement for most businesses and I’m sure I could get it sorted out by contacting Blueface support but I think it should be standard.

Overall

We are very happy so far and I would certainly recommend them based upon our experiences. Having said that we have yet to experience any outage yet and in my experience this is the true acid test of any telecoms provider.

 

Tagged with:  

Pellevé Launched In Ireland

Face Ironing or Pellevé

Kambiz Golchin performs a Pellevé treatment

Pellevé is the latest entry into the non-invasive or non-surgical face lift market, and was launched in Ireland yesterday by Mr Kambiz Golchin from the About Face Clinic. Pellevé uses radio frequencies to modify the collagen bundles deep beneath the skin giving an immediate tightening effect. Over the next six months the collagen begins to re-knit, continuously tightening which should give ongoing results. The application of radio frequencies causes a warming sensation leading to the nickname “face ironing”.

One of the biggest advantages of Pellevé is that is does not require any downtime as it causes no damage to the visible outer layers of the skin. Patients generally require two or three treatments to start with, followed by one treatment every 6 months to maintain the results. About Face Clinic are currently offering the treatment at €650 per session, a significant discount on UK prices, where it can cost as much as £1,200 per session.

Irish patients interested in the treatment can contact the About Face Clinic directly by clicking here or by calling 01 9010125 ext. 62949. Clinics that offer the treatment can add it to their listing by logging into their account or contacting their account manager.

For more information about this new treatment you can visit www.Pelleve.com, and you can watch Mr Golchin perform the treatment in this video from TV3.

Tagged with:  

Irish Online Health Enquiries – May 2010

It’s time to look at what treatments Irish patients contacting clinics through RevaHealth.com were interesting in during May. There’s good news for dental implant specialists both sides of the border, and further afield. Denture clinics in the Republic have something to smile about too, at the expensive of their colleagues in the North. Breast reductions in both women and men are on the rise in cosmetic surgery, and Botox remains the king of cosmetic beauty treatments.

Dental Treatments in Ireland - June 2010

The trend towards lower cost and maitanence dentistry continues as the economy continues to contract, with dentures, teeth cleaning and fillings enquiries all seeing substantial increases against the last year’s averages. Bucking that trend though are dental implants, one of the most costly treatments around, which saw a 20.7% increase in market share, up to 17% compared to the yearly average of 14.1%.

Dental Tourism to Northern Ireland - June 2010

Irish patients continue to enquire about treatment in Northern Ireland in large numbers, with root canals and dental implants seeing the biggest shifts from the norms, but it’s bad news for denture clinics for this month at least as patients in the Republic seek more intent on staying put than making the journey across the border.

Dental Tourism Treatments for Irish Patients - June 2010

Figures for Irish enquiries about dental tourism treatments reveal a shift away from the slightly cheaper treatments of teeth whitening and veneers back towards implants, crowns and bridges. There were also more surprising increases for root canals, dentures and even fillings. This might be because of the run up to people’s summer holidays, so people are already travelling to foreign destinations.

Cosmetic Surgery in Ireland - June 2010

The trend more for breast reduction operations for women continues, as does the increased interest in liposuction. Male breast reduction, also known as treatment for gynecomastia, mirrors the increase in popularity noted in the UK by growing its market share from an average of 1.5% of enquiries to 3% of enquiries in May.

Cosmetic Beauty Treatments in Ireland - June 2010

Botox is the undisputed king of the hill in the cosmetic beauty treatment world, accounting for 27.9% of Irish enquiries in May. Laser hair removal is a distant but growing second at 14% of the market.

Medical Tourism from Ireland - June 2010

Finally the overview of medical tourism from Ireland shows very small falls in market share for dental and cosmetic surgery enquiries, with fertility clinics being the biggest winners. In an average month fertility clinics abroad account for 1.5% of Irish medical tourism enquiries, whereas last month they managed to take 3.6% of the market.

More data about the UK market will follow on Monday. If you’d like to see some other statistics about Irish private health patients or have any questions about the above please leave a comment in the box below.

Following on from my post last month about what treatments Irish dental patients were interested in, here is a more comprehensive look at what dental and cosmetic patients in the UK, Ireland, and the US & Canada are enquiring about on RevaHealth.com. This time I’ve included the data for the past 12 months as well as the month just gone. This gives a good indication of what treatments are growing in popularity over time.

As ever, your comments and feedback both about the figures we’ve published and other figures you might like to see are more than welcome. You can leave a comment at the end of this post or contact us via email or Twitter – full details on the contact us page.

British Patients

British Dental Treatments - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments Requested by UK Patients - May 2010

First up we take a look at what UK dental patients are interested in. The classic cosmetic treatments of teeth whitening and veneers lead the way. This month I’ve broken out Invisalign from traditional braces as they account for such a big share of the market by themselves, 11.05% in the last month, a 55% increase over their yearly average.

Looking at the other differences between last month’s and last year’s figures you can see a shift towards more basic treatments like teeth cleaning, extractions and dentures to the expensive of some of the more expensive cosmetic treatments. Veneers in particular are 37% behind their yearly average despite still being the second most popular individual treatment. It will be interesting to see if the cosmetic treatments make a comeback as the UK economy turns around.

British Dental Tourism Breakdown - May 2010

British Dental Tourism Patients - May 2010

Patients from the UK heading abroad for their dental work are still interested primarily in the top end treatments like veneers and dental implants, but the number one treatment enquired about last month was teeth whitening, traditionally one of the cheaper cosmetic dental treatments. Last month it accounted for 26% of enquiries for dental treatment abroad.

Patients thinking of having teeth whitening abroad are more than likely going to be travelling to their chosen clinic’s location already, as it would be hard to save the travel and accommodation costs on the reduced treatment cost alone.

Plastic Surgery Treatments for British Patients - May 2010

British Cosmetic Surgery Patients - May 2010

For this month’s figures I’ve rolled a lot of treatments up into their category, and one surprising result is shown here in the UK’s cosmetic surgery figures. Genital reshaping is and has been for the last year the most enquired about area of treatment in the UK. I didn’t really believe this when I saw it myself, so I looked into it a bit further and it turns out that in the past this was largely down to circumcision being included in genital reshaping. However, last month it accounted for only 35% of genital reshaping enquiries. Other treatments enquired about in the last month include vaginoplasty, labiaplasty, hymenoplasty and penis enlargement.

Seeing as genital reshaping accounts for so much of the market we will probably start breaking it out into its individual treatments in next month’s figures.

Beauty Treatments for British Patients - May 2010

Top 10 British Cosmetic Beauty Treatments - May 2010

The cosmetic beauty sector has one of the most dependable treatment breakdowns around, being solidly dominated by Botox again and again. Judging by last month’s figures it shows no signs of declining in popularity.

British Medical Tourism Breakdown - May 2010

Breakdown of British Medical Tourism - May 2010

Looking at what treatment areas British people are looking for when travelling abroad, you can see that plastic surgery, cosmetic beauty and fertility enquiries are all increasing. We haven’t seen any decrease in the number of enquiries for treatment abroad so although it accounts for less of the market overall, that is just down to the increasing popularity of the other areas mentioned.

British Medical Tourism Treatments - May 2010

Top 10 Medical Tourism Treatments for British Patients - May 2010

As reflected in the breakdown by treatment area, cosmetic surgery treatments are growing in popularity relative to their market share over the past 12 months.

Irish Patients

Dental Treatments in Ireland - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments in Ireland - May 2010

There is an interesting spike in last month’s figures for dental implants compared to their yearly average market share, this despite being among the most expensive treatments available. Similarly there is an increase in interest in Invisalign treatment too, again one of the more modern and expensive treatments available. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into next month.

Dental Treatments for Irish Patients Travelling to Northern Ireland - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments for Irish Patients in Northern Ireland - May 2010

Northern Ireland remains a very popular alternative for dental treatment for Irish patients, accounting for 26% of all Irish dental enquiries last month. Again the expensive treatments dominate the enquiries, with braces leading the way. There is evidence of prices falling somewhat in the Republic recently and the Euro is getting weaker at the moment, so it looks like Northern dentists will be in for some competition over the coming months.

Irish Dental Tourism Treatment Breakdown - May 2010

Top 10 Dental Treatments for Irish Patients Travelling Abroad - May 2010

The increase in interest in dental implants at home in Ireland seems to be mirrored by a decrease in their popularity last month among patients intending to travel abroad, while the other traditional favourite veneers remains just as popular. Dental crowns, invisalign and dentures all experienced a relative boost in popularity this month too.

Cosmetic Surgery Treatments in Ireland - May 2010

Irish Plastic Surgery Patients - May 2010

There has been a fairly steady interest in the cosmetic surgery treatments that are popular among Irish patients for the last year, and it continues this month. The biggest change in the last month has been an increase in popluarity for breast implants, which are 18% ahead of their yearly average.

Cosmetic Beauty Treatments for Irish Patients - May 2010

Irish Beauty Patients - May 2010

As with the UK, the cosmetic beauty sector is dominated by Botox enquiries, here accounting for just under 30% of the market. Frequent television ads for a laser hair removal company seem to have increased the popularity of that treatment also, with enquiries running 23% ahead of their yearly average.

Irish Medical Tourism Breakdown - May 2010

Breakdown of Medical Tourism in Ireland - May 2010

Again, following the trend in the UK, Irish patients looking for treatment abroad are increasingly interested in cosmetic surgery and beauty procedures, as well as fertility and bariatric surgery. The relative decrease does not represent a drop in enquiries numbers for dental treatment abroad, rather it reflects in the increase in numbers for the other treatment areas.

Irish Medical Tourism Treatments - May 2010

Top 10 Medical Tourism Treatments for Irish Patients - May 2010

The top ten individual treatments for Irish medical tourists are dominated by dental treatments but interestingly botox makes an appearance along with breast implants.

US & Canadian Patients

Medical Tourism from the US & Canada - May 2010

Medical Tourism Breakdown - USA & Canada - May 2010

Much more so than in the UK or Ireland, US & Canadian patients are looking for dental treatment aborad, and the increases in popularity of other treatment areas is much smaller. Mexico remains by far the most popular destination, followed by the Philippines and Costa Rica.

Medical Tourism Treatments for Patients from the US & Canada - May 2010

Top 10 Medical Tourism Treatments for American and Canadian Patients - May 2010

As with dental tourism in Europe, the most popular treatments are the expensive cosmetic treatments of dental implants and dental veneers.

Next Month

As ever we are interested in providing information that is not only useful to us here in RevaHealth.com, but also is of use to you, our readers. Whether you are a journalist, a business owner or a patient, we’d love to hear your feedback and any requests for additional information you might have.

Tagged with:  

With the recent changes to the way that Irish patients can claim money back on dental treatment, the cost of treatment for many looks set to rise. I thought now would be a good time to benchmark what treatments Irish patients were enquiring about over the last year and see how this changes over the coming year. Here are some statistics about the different types of treatment that Irish dental patients are interested in based on where they are having the treatment performed. First of all here are the treatments that people are enquiring about through dentists in the Republic.

Republic of Ireland dental treatments

Braces and orthodontics top the list, with new treatments like Invisalign helping to increase their share of the market. Of interest also is the fact that optional cosmetic treatments like teeth whitening and veneers are still so prominent in the list despite the downturn. It will be interesting to see if they remain so prominent over the coming year.

Next, we take a look at what patients from the Republic are looking for from dentists in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland dental treatments

An even greater proportion of patients looking for treatment in Northern Ireland are interested in braces, not surprising given that it is one of the more expensive treatments available – starting prices for treatment in Dublin are close to €4,000.  I’d be interested to hear what prices people are being quoted for orthodontics in Northern Ireland by way of comparison.

Root canal treatment also accounts for a far greater share of the market here than with local dentists. It is a necessary precursor to many other treatments, but again they can be quite costly, especially as it is done as needed per tooth.

Finally, here is a look at which treatments patients are looking at having done abroad.

Overseas dental treatments for Irish patients

Dental implants jump to the top of the list here. From our own survey of previous dental tourism patients we know that price is their primary concern, and with implants starting around €1,500 at home and around €600 in Hungary it is no wonder that they are asking about treatment abroad. Surprisingly the relatively inexpensive teeth whitening is also very popular, as is the other cosmetic favourite, dental veneers.

Even more surprising though is that braces abroad are so popular. With regular visits needed to tighten and adjust most braces, traveling abroad each time can prove to be very expensive if you’re not careful. As you’ll hear in a patient case study later this week, even with the greatest planning there can be unexpected problems that can force the price up to more than the cost here in Ireland.

We’ll take a look at this information again in the months to come to see how things are changing. In the meantime, if there is more information like this you’d like to see, please leave a comment below. We’ll be publishing similar information for the UK market soon too.

Tagged with:  

Dental Tourism in Ireland

Dental tourism is a very divisive topic. On the one hand the advocates of dental tourism espouse the financial savings that can be made, while on the other hand its opponents often talk about poor quality work being carried out abroad. Unfortunately for everyone involved hard facts are very difficult to come by.

Last August the Irish Times reported on a Consumer Choice magazine report which said that “Dentists were found to be 29 per cent more expensive in Dublin compared to Belfast“. A couple of weeks later the Irish Dental Association released the results of their own survey which said that “More than three out of four dentists have had to treat patients for problems linked to treatment received abroad“.

A previous dental tourism survey carried out by us here at RevaHealth.com showed high levels of satisfaction with the treatment received, but worrying levels of education when it came knowing in advance exactly what treatment was needed.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

Ideally we would like to see everyone involved in dentistry in Ireland, whether at home or abroad, publish information and minimise spin. Putting the facts in the public domain should help everyone involved; patients will be able to make better informed decisions on where to be treated, and dentists will be able to make better informed decisions based on what patients want and need.

Luckily, we’re in the position of being able to ask thousands of patients both before and after their treatment about their expectations and their experiences. We already ask patients on an ongoing basis about their post treatment satisfaction levels. We intend to expand this into other areas of questioning and share the results as soon as we can. As a start, here are the results of surveying all RevaHealth.com’s users from Ireland who had dental treatment outside of the Republic in 2009.

Irish Dental Tourism Satisfaction 2009

Survey Results

There are a number of things I would point out about these results. We believe there is a natural tendency for people who have travelled abroad to slightly inflate their satisfaction scores as  a means of self justification. That said, the scores do indicate a high level of satisfaction across the board.

One change I would like to see to this survey is to do with the question of quality of work. I think this topic is actually contained in the “Overall Satisfaction” score, but for the sake of clarity I’d like to see it broken out into its own section.

How You Can Help Us Help You?

If you are involved or interested in the industry, this is where you come in. Satisfaction levels are one thing, but what questions would you like to see answered by Irish dental patients? Over the coming months we intend to publish the results of our survey of Irish patients who were treated in Ireland, as well as continuing to publish more information from Irish, British and overseas patients in general.

If you have questions that you think would add to overall quality of information available about the Irish and British dental industries, or another international market, please leave a comment below or email me directly at pboyle@revahealth.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tagged with:  
© 2010 WhatClinic.com Blog