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YourCity.MD Completes Launch of 300 City-Specific Healthcare Social Networking Sites Reaching 98 Percent of the U.S. Healthcare Market

Posted on: Thursday, 1 November 2007, 09:01 CDT

YourCity.MD LLC today announced that it has completed the launch of 300 city-specific healthcare networks, reaching approximately 98 percent of the U.S. healthcare market, with the .MD top level domain (TLD) extension, delivering a local, intuitive, relevant and physician recommended Web site aimed at connecting both healthcare consumers and providers. For a complete list of the cities launched, visit: http://www.yourcity.md/yourcity/allcities.aspx.

YourCity.MD already launched Cincinnati.MD (www.cincinnati.md) and Dayton.MD (www.dayton.md) as pilot programs, which have met with great success, relied on by local healthcare consumers and local employer associations, endorsed by the medical community, adopted by physician groups and hospitals of fee-based services, along with a steady growth in local healthcare advertising interest from individual physician groups, hospitals, as well as national advertisers.

"Our guiding principle at YourCity.MD is that healthcare is and should be local and relevant. Now, almost every consumer across the country can type in their city with an intuitive, easy to remember extension -- .MD -- and quickly find their local healthcare network. Further, we are creating locally-based social networking sites for healthcare that appeal to both consumers and providers, with the only national database that allows for single-click, locally targeted ads," said Joe Benza Jr., CEO of YourCity.MD.

"The provider, or physician, has been left out of the equation when it comes to Internet-based healthcare. We not only reach and engage consumers, but we provide valuable services to providers, allowing them to grow and improve their practice through free quality improvement and practice promotion tools, the ability to increase patient referrals through a fair and constructive physician rating system/patient feedback system and targeted advertising," said Dr. Michael Barber, chief medical officer at YourCity.MD.

"YourCity.MD has a proven, scalable model which allows for the quick replication and growth of the company at a low cost. The company's value proposition is that each local healthcare site delivers valuable fee and non-fee based services to a critical stakeholder -- local providers - and an important social network to local consumers. Plus, they have the only complete collection of city sites for geomarketing to the medical community," said Ben Dunn, Investment Banker at Covington Associates in Boston.

Each local city-specific site will feature the following:

For Consumers

Information on specific medical conditions and access to shared strategies, local or national online support groups and education, such as newsletters, regarding their specific conditions or medical concerns

Ability to search and find local providers -- by specialty, last name, travel distance, gender, hospital affiliation, insurance plan and language spoken - along with information on how a specific physician or provider has been rated, helping in the decision-making process

For Providers

Free quality improvement and practice promotion tools including:

Free Web listing, searchable by specialty

Access to patient feedback and reporting tools that show providers how they are doing relative to their colleagues, both locally and nationally

Ability to resolve issues and discuss health issue direct with patients through secure safe direct "one-button" communications, improving patient satisfaction

Access to patient information handouts

Posting of patient feedback and testimonials to help increase referrals and for use in advertising

Benza pointed out that, "Consumers choose a physician or dentist based on the recommendation of a trusted friend or relative. We are leveraging the tried and true practice of "word of mouth" in every local community to help great doctors get referrals and help struggling offices improve their practices. And, we believe that the average consumer would prefer to search their local city .MD portal for details on local providers and to read feedback from thousands of their neighbor patients on potential providers."

About YourCity.MD

YourCity.MD LLC is the first and only digital media company to reach healthcare consumers and providers in the top 301 U.S. markets with its city specific domain names with the .MD extension. Founded on the principle that healthcare is and should be local, YourCity.MD helps consumers access a healthcare network combining national reach with a local platform. Designed to also appeal to providers, YourCity.MD helps grow and improve one's medical practice through free productivity tools and a third party independent physician rating/patient feedback system that serves as a dependable source of referrals. For more information, visit www.YourCity.MD or type in your local city name with the new .MD TLD Internet extension.

Source: Business Wire

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