And DrGreene.com was born …

Shortly after Austin was born, parents of one of Alan’s patients suggested he begin a Web site where he could address parents’ non-urgent questions then archive them for all his patients to read.  Now, in the post information-age era, that doesn’t seem like a cutting edge idea, but in 1995 no physician had offered such a service.  In fact, the AMA cites DrGreene.com as the first physician web site!  Keep in mind that the very first web browser, Netscape, launched in 1995 and Internet Explorer was still on the drawing board at that time.

We applied for a grant from Silicon Graphics and received hardware, software, training, and graphics support (no actual cash).  The plan was for Alan to answer questions from his patients and for me to post them to the Web site.  I loved the idea of working from home and focusing my web site activities around Austin’s schedule. We decided that we would “try” running a Web site as a business.  We set the goal of recovering my salary so I would not have to go back to corporate America (see previous post if that doesn’t make sense to you) by the time Austin was one year old.  I set up the SGI workstation on the kitchen table and within a few months we opened the virtual doors to DrGreene.com.

Alan began distributing the web site address to his patients and encouraging them to ask the questions they wish they had time to ask in the office.  Each night after his normal office routine and the kids were tucked in for the night, he wrote.  As he did, a new dynamic emerged.  His patients felt there was an open door, day and night, to ask the questions that were important to them.  Before they came to office visits they would get online and read what Alan had written about their situation (perhaps originally for someone else).  When they arrived at the visit they already had background knowledge and were able to spend the time they had together discussing the specifics they needed addressed about their child.

But something unexpected happened.  DrGreene.com began showing up on search engines and people from all over the world found us.  They wrote in with their questions and the virtual door to DrGreene’s practice widened.

I had the wonderful opportunity to read all the questions people sent to the web site.  I was amazed by all the grateful replies from parents who were finding the answers to their most difficult questions. It felt like we had stumbled onto the very thing that we had been born to do.  I remember saying to Alan that I felt so happy and fulfilled – I was in the relationship I’d always dreamed of, I had a beautiful baby, and a job that I loved!