Global recognition for quality of care and advancing industry

Foot Medic Awarded Global Health and Pharma - Podiatrists of the year 2018 

Everyone here at Foot Medic is delighted to announce that we’ve won a Global Health & Pharma Award for service excellence. We usually don’t like blowing our own trumpet but we’re so thrilled to have been nominated for this prestigious award , we can’t wait to let everyone know about it.

Global Health & Pharma is a health industry portal, bringing together all sorts of medical and healthcare organisations to share information, best practice and provide news about what’s going on in the industry. It looks at healthcare issues worldwide, rather than just focusing on the UK. The website and magazine cover core medical services delivered by the NHS as well as allied services such as social care, physiotherapy, dentistry or pharmaceuticals. They highlight organisations and clinics across the globe who are going above and beyond to deliver superior service to their patients, or who have taken on a campaigning role to change the public perception of a condition or healthcare provision.

We’ve been awarded in the Private Healthcare section of the Awards, which covers all healthcare providers from dentists and Harley Street clinics to physiotherapists and hearing specialists. The Global Health and Pharma Award goes a long way in recognising that Foot Medic is doing something just a little bit different from many other podiatrists not just in the UK, but across the world. 

We're Transforming Podiatry

One of the most heard comments as patients leave after treatment is “I didn’t think podiatry was like this!” Let’s be honest. Podiatry has a bit of an image problem, associated with dingy clinics and old-fashioned treatments. Foot Medic is so far from that image that our patients are amazed by the light, airy clinic, freshly-brewed coffee and homemade tablet – and that’s just the reception area! 

The range of conditions which we treat is also extensive and expanding all of the time. We’re excited about modern developments in technology which make diagnosis quicker and clinical outcomes better! 

We provide truly comprehensive medical services relating to the foot and ankle, catering for all age groups, ranging from what we would term as routine problems, like skin pathologies to advanced musculoskeletal services like biomechanics, gait and blood analysis, medical imaging, joint injection and orthoses manufacture.

Fundamentally, as dramatic as it may sound, our mission is to improve the lives of those we treat. We encourage our clients to see beyond the physical tasks of podiatry and focus on the effect of podiatry. In essence we remove and reduce pain from patients’ lives. We improve the quality of their lives and increase and improve mobility. Everyone’s goals are different, one person’s goal might be to walk pain free, another to move more to lose weight, improve health or the athlete who might need to repair and rehab an injury or get better, faster times. Podiatry has a role to play in each of these scenarios and the Foot Medic aims to ensure excellence for everyone it treats.

That’s just scratching the surface of what we’re about at Foot Medic – we could also mention our friendly team, each member of which brings different skills and experience into the clinic, or the fact we’ve got a video-appointment system which lets us help you wherever you’re based in the world. We could be looking at plantar fasciitis in Glasgow on a Monday, and helping a hiker who’s injured his foot in Geneva on a Tuesday.  

The future of healthcare - its all about connecting people

When I was a student I spent a year or so working for Scotland’s telephone contact centre, NHS 24. We would take calls from all over the country. The system was operated on a triangular principle of call centres, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Due to the geographical nature of Scotland, the highlands and islands specifically, getting medical help and advice could be difficult. 

Sometimes when taking calls where we would have to lead the caller through a set of processes, the outcome being determined by the answers they would give. We would rely heavily on the their descriptions of themselves or the person they were calling about. They would say things like ‘its a bit swollen’ or ‘the rash is red and raised’ and a million other variations of those types of things. Often I would sit there on the phone thinking, what if we could see this. Wouldn’t that be so much easier

I was an undergraduate podiatry student then. Fast forward six years, I am the director of a company, an employer and yet still a podiatrist above all. I enjoy being a podiatrist. And my standard answer to those who say ‘how can you do this job’ has become something along the lines of ‘ I enjoy helping people. I take away pain and advise people on improving their health’. Wanting to help people comes from somewhere deep within care givers, whatever form that might take, the doctor, the nurse or indeed the podiatrist. 

I can hear the phone at reception from my office. Sometimes we are unable to offer patients appointments. Victims of our own success some might say. Its true to say that my team of podiatrists are proud of providing very good care to patients. That can mean from time to time we struggle to help everyone who asks for it, when they need it most. I thought on the solution for around a year. I knew if I could connect with patients remotely, just like I thought of when I was at NHS 24, I could help more people, faster. 

It wasn’t until a dinner with friend and colleague Damien Gough, who was well versed in the application of technology in healthcare that the notion started to become a reality. Damien and I had shared our motivations and passion for helping people on a larger scale than we were already able to do. Across our meatballs and pasta we returned suggestions like, Skype, Facebook messenger, and various others. All these would be discounted for a number of reasons including data security, encryption and what we thought was a trusted, serious platform for patients to engage with. After a few months of exchanges we finally developed a system that would work. It was secure, private, reputable. It was easy to use and reliable. Finally, we had done it. So after a year in the planning, in the end, it took only a matter of weeks to finalise once we had something tangible to work with. 

The system is simple. From the outset I wanted to have the fewest number of clicks required to connect, ensuring it was uncomplicated for the user. Now we have a care portal which 

 user through 3 clicks of a mouse can be face to face with an expert. No waiting times, no busy waiting rooms, transport or parking issues to worry about. The future of healthcare provision has arrived. I predict that virtual consultations will become routine. Change takes time and Im sure it wont be without resistance from those who fear it but it still feels good to be at the front end of it.

You can watch our short video explaining how our tele-medicine portal works here

Or if you would like to use the service right now click here