Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Should doctors grab a .health domain?

Elbert Chu
Tech
March 17, 2014
Share
Tweet
Share

medpagetodaySo, you’re setting up a website for your practice. You thought you’d just grab a .com, .net, or maybe .info. But now there’s .health. Will one of those set you apart from the .com crowd?

So what do you need to know about these new domains?

1. Will patients come looking for me on .health? The bottom line is that it’s highly unlikely patients will try to guess permutations of your name with the .health appended. According to a 2013 Pew study, eight in ten people start their health queries at the Google machine — clicking through the path of least resistance. And as it stands, unless you have some serious search engine optimization mojo, your existing online profiles at .edu or LinkedIn will surface first.

2. Who else will occupy .health with me? If you were moving into a neighborhood, you’d probably choose realtors who have all the listings and know the area best. Most realtors also help landlords verify tenant eligibility with credit checks and checking applications.

Same idea with new top level domains. For online domains, the landlord is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees new domains. ICANN selects certain marketing companies that act as realtors to market and sell the domains. In this case, ICANN seems to be assigning marketing rights to companies that some observers worry will not perform any background checks or validation of prospective .health neighbors.

Tim K. Mackey, MAS, PhD, an investigator at the San Diego Center for Patient Safety at the University of San Diego, scrutinized .health’s potential “realtors” in a recent paper published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Only one company has any controls, and it’s unclear if they will follow up/monitor them. Mackey singled out Donuts Inc., one of the four companies vying for marketing rights to sell the .health domains.

“The way ICANN is treating .health now, it will likely be awarded in a month or so to a private company that has virtually no experience in medicine or public health,” Mackey wrote in an email to MedPage Today. “A lot of these companies are under serious pressure to make the domain profitable, so they will open it up to pretty much anyone for registration.”

Jon Nevett, co-founder of Donuts, told MedPage Today in a phone interview that the validation requirements fall on the shoulders of a government advisory committee.

“We believe in consumer choice,” Nevett said. “The committee determined there should be opportunities for people to buy domains like financial.health and computer.health.”

3. Should doctors grab a .health domain? If doctors wanted to pre-empt misleading information by moving into the neighborhood first, that might help. But on the other hand, “if .health ends up being populated with poor information, it may not be of value and worth waiting out,” Mackey said.

4. What are the alternatives? Doctors might be better off waiting for domains such as .doctor, .medical, or .surgery, which are in the works, according to Mackey and Nevett. The government advisory committee hasdetermined that those domains will be what’s known as “highly regulated,” while .health domains are simply “regulated.”

Mackey added that two out of three of the .doctor marketing company applicants have said that future registrants will be limited to physicians with applicable licenses.

5. How much will it cost? Based on the way other specialty domains have sold, Nevett estimates that domains like .doctor will likely cost around $40 on average, compared to roughly $20 for a .com.

ADVERTISEMENT

The bottom line?

“Medical professionals can select better domain names that mean more, and provide value for doctors like branding a new practice,” Nevett said. “You won’t need the .com anymore.”

Elbert Chu is an associate producer, MedPage Today, where this article originally appeared.

Prev

Demand to become an old school attending physician

March 17, 2014 Kevin 3
…
Next

Anonymous social networking apps: What parents can do about them

March 17, 2014 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Health IT, Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Demand to become an old school attending physician
Next Post >
Anonymous social networking apps: What parents can do about them

ADVERTISEMENT

More in Tech

  • AI is already replacing doctors—just not how you think

    Bhargav Raman, MD, MBA
  • A mind to guide the machine: Why physicians must help shape artificial intelligence in medicine

    Shanice Spence-Miller, MD
  • How digital tools are reshaping the doctor-patient relationship

    Vineet Vishwanath
  • The promise and perils of AI in health care: Why we need better testing standards

    Max Rollwage, PhD
  • 3 tips for using AI medical scribes to save time charting

    Erica Dorn, FNP
  • Would The Pitts’ Dr. Robby Robinavitch welcome a new colleague? Yes. Especially if their initials were AI.

    Gabe Jones, MBA
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • Why health care leaders fail at execution—and how to fix it

      Dave Cummings, RN | Policy
    • How digital tools are reshaping the doctor-patient relationship

      Vineet Vishwanath | Tech
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • The hidden health risks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

      Trevor Lyford, MPH | Policy
  • Recent Posts

    • Why ADHD in women requires a new approach [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • AI is already replacing doctors—just not how you think

      Bhargav Raman, MD, MBA | Tech
    • Why doctors must stop ignoring unintentional weight loss in patients with obesity

      Samantha Malley, FNP-C | Conditions
    • Why more doctors are choosing direct care over traditional health care

      Grace Torres-Hodges, DPM, MBA | Physician
    • Why hospitals are quietly capping top doctors’ pay

      Dennis Hursh, Esq | Conditions
    • Why point-of-care ultrasound belongs in emergency department triage

      Resa E. Lewiss, MD and Courtney M. Smalley, MD | Conditions

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 2 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why timing, not surgery, determines patient survival

      Michael Karch, MD | Conditions
    • Why health care leaders fail at execution—and how to fix it

      Dave Cummings, RN | Policy
    • How digital tools are reshaping the doctor-patient relationship

      Vineet Vishwanath | Tech
  • Past 6 Months

    • Forced voicemail and diagnosis codes are endangering patient access to medications

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Meds
    • How President Biden’s cognitive health shapes political and legal trust

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Conditions
    • Why are medical students turning away from primary care? [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The One Big Beautiful Bill and the fragile heart of rural health care

      Holland Haynie, MD | Policy
    • Why “do no harm” might be harming modern medicine

      Sabooh S. Mubbashar, MD | Physician
    • The hidden health risks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

      Trevor Lyford, MPH | Policy
  • Recent Posts

    • Why ADHD in women requires a new approach [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • AI is already replacing doctors—just not how you think

      Bhargav Raman, MD, MBA | Tech
    • Why doctors must stop ignoring unintentional weight loss in patients with obesity

      Samantha Malley, FNP-C | Conditions
    • Why more doctors are choosing direct care over traditional health care

      Grace Torres-Hodges, DPM, MBA | Physician
    • Why hospitals are quietly capping top doctors’ pay

      Dennis Hursh, Esq | Conditions
    • Why point-of-care ultrasound belongs in emergency department triage

      Resa E. Lewiss, MD and Courtney M. Smalley, MD | Conditions

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Should doctors grab a .health domain?
2 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...