Is writing physician bios making you crazy?  Let us help with these tips.

First, decide what you are going for.  We are usually shooting for smart, academic, accomplished….all while being approachable.  We use training, accolades, skills to convey the first part and humanizing the docs for the second part.

Then, decide what content you want to convey.  It’s hard to write about yourself.  Typically, asking the docs to send you a bio to use isn’t very helpful.  Ask them set questions to have some consistency and then have a copy writer or someone on your team that loves writing craft them into bios.  You can do an interview with the questions and use the recording to write the bio or simply email them over and have the docs respond.  You decide which will be more effective based on your physicians and time constraints.

Here are some questions we like:

  • Name as you’d like it listed:
  • Where did you complete undergrad, medical school, internship, residency, fellowship?
  • Any other notable training we should mention (robotic surgery, urogynecology, procedures)?
  • Any particular areas of clinical interest?
  • What made you want to become a doctor?
  • What do you love about practicing medicine?
  • What do you wish you could tell every patient (and they would actually do) and why?
  • Fun fact about you?
  • What do you enjoy doing when not at work?
  • What city do you live in? Married? Kids? (if comfortable sharing…usually something along the lines of Dr. Smith lives in Dallas with her husband and teenage sons)
  • What brought you to Dallas?
  • Do you have pets?

Essentially, you are trying to draw out facts that will help you convey the personality of the physicians.  If you can make them seem approachable, it really helps “sell” the patients on them.  We are aiming for something like this:

Jane Smith was born and raised in Dallas, Texas and received a Bachelor of Science at University of Texas.  She completed medical school of University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas and both her internship and residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She has extensive training in minimally invasive surgical techniques, such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery.  She enjoys all aspects of Obstetrics and Gynecology, including wellness, infertility, and surgery.  When Dr. Smith isn’t at work, she loves spending time with her family, snow skiing, reading European historical fiction, UT football, and volunteering with the SPCA.

Finally, always let the doctors review the bio before publishing.  Include a head shot and you are ready to go!