Greetings there.
It's New Zealand naturopath, Eric Bakker.
I'm the author of Candida Crusher and the formulator of the Canxida range of supplements.
Thanks for checking out my video.
I'm going to talk today about how I do online consultations.
I've had various emails over the course of probably the last one or two years and also
many people coming through on my YouTube channel, this Candida Crusher channel, as well as Facebook
and many other sort of means asking me about online consultations.
How I do it.
Is it possible to do it?
What is the correct procedure or protocol to do these consultations?
Are there any problems?
Let's talk a bit about that today.
I've been seeing patients now for 28 years, so quite a long time now.
Probably just over half my life I've seen patients now.
I started seeing patients really when I was about 27 and I'm 56 this year, so it shows
you how long I've been seeing people for.
Quite a few years.
What's that, 25 years, 26 years, I'm not quite sure, but I know it's going to be close to
30 years in a few years.
For many, many years, I saw patients face to face.
And how it came about really was several years ago when I started EricBakker.com, my website,
I started having the odd patient emailing me asking me if they could see me because
they were in the states.
They wanted to know if I had a clinic in the states.
And I said, "No.
I don't come to America and I don't really know anybody over there."
I can still remember the very first patient I saw online and it was a lady in California.
It would have been about four years ago now, maybe five years ago, which was quite a change
for me actually seeing somebody through the computer.
I thought, "This is crazy."
How can you actually do a consultation with someone you can't actually see face to face?
You can't look at them close up, in their eyes and look at their skin.
It was quite strange at first doing this.
But I had a doctor friend of mine in Australia telling me that he's been seeing patients
online now for over 10 years and it's worked very successfully for him.
He's been able to reach out to patients in a lot of countries.
Move the clock fast forward now and now I have patients in about 40 different countries,
so all around the world.
Most European countries.
I've seen patients all throughout Scandinavian.
I think we got a patient in Iceland.
We've got patients all throughout England and Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Holland.
Of course, many other countries.
Portugal, Spain, all through there and many different Asian countries as well, Saudi Arabia,
Dubai.
I've got patients in Dubai.
Singapore, many, many different countries.
All throughout Australia and New Zealand of course.
All over the place.
It's incredible.
It works very well indeed.
It works very well.
Skype is the predominant way I catch up with people and also Face Time.
Face Time on Mac I find actually very, very good.
So a few dos and don'ts with online consultations when it comes to making it easy for both me
and for the patient.
I like people to have some sort of basic knowledge on computers obviously and also Skype.
Understand really how to download Skype and install it and have that working.
It works better obviously if you've used Skype before.
It's difficult if you haven't really used it previous.
It's very hard for me to work with people who use mobile phones or walk around trying
to do a consultation.
I prefer it if someone has got a home computer or has got a very good internet access.
I've high speed here in New Zealand.
We've got 100MBs up and downloads.
We've got a very high speed fiber connection.
So if you've got a very good connection, it's going to work beautifully.
Skype can be used on Windows or Mac operating systems.
You'll find it easy to book a consultation through my Facebook page, but also through
yeastinfection.org.
I believe there is a link on there or ericbakker.com, through my website.
Normally I'm booked up I think a week, sometimes two weeks ahead, but sometimes there are plenty
of vacancies.
Other times I'm booked up well ahead.
It's easy to see me.
It's not hard to book an online consultation.
Tests.
I work with different testing companies in America.
I also work with a testing company in Europe now and I obviously recommend different kinds
of products for people at times, the Canxida range I've used with people now throughout
the world.
And hopefully this year, 2016, going to expand our reach with the Canxida products into Australia
and New Zealand and into Europe.
I'm going to build on that range.
It's been very successful in terms of the results and feedback we've had from patients.
It's been absolutely fantastic.
I had three consultations today with people that basically have had an amazing outcome
with the Canxida Remove and the Restore, so thanks for that incredible feedback.
I do quite a lot of stool testing on patients and find that often confirms the need for
different types of specific products.
A patient today we had from America taking about 15 different dietary supplements that
she didn't need to take because she had had a major problem with her stomach and pancreas.
She wasn't absorbing the products at all.
She was just wasting her money basically.
She just needed a good antifungal product, something to clean up the bacteria in the
stomach and fungal issues in the small intestine before anything would really work.
Sometimes testing is necessary.
If you need testing, that can be easily arranged.
I work with my business manager here, Tracy.
Tracy has been phenomenal in how she's been working with my clients.
She works on the front desk, takes payments, and organizing testing and gets all my folders
for patients ready for me each day.
I couldn't work without Tracy.
I'm really pleased that she's working alongside me.
It's a very successful combination now.
In fact, almost all my patients are on Skype.
I do occasionally see patients face to face.
I would see anywhere between five to seven patients in a day routinely.
I would say in a week; I might get one or two patients now in my room.
Most of them are on Skype.
It's just easy for patients that way in the privacy of your own home.
And if you look at the time conversions, oftentimes, I'll be Skyping patients here through the
day and it's night time in the US and it's the day before.
Patients in Sweden, same thing, the day before if they're Scandinavian.
It's quite incredible how it works.
If you're considering an online consultation, I'm always happy to see new patients or to
work with existing patients.
Another issue that sometimes pops up from time to time is it's difficult for me to maintain
email dialogue for patients that I've seen.
As you can appreciate, I've got a very busy practice.
I work quite hard with people.
And when I'm not working with people, I'm either completely relaxing, chilling out or
exercising or working with my bees and my vegetable garden, home doing some research,
so I haven't got a lot of time for email dialogue with people.
If everybody emailed me all their questions continuously, it just wouldn't work.
So I prefer people save up their questions and normally I'm in contact with patients
on a monthly basis, but sometimes it's three weeks.
Sometimes it's four weeks.
So if you've got questions, you're better off writing all the questions down and then
asking me those questions at the time of the follow up consultation or you can make a special
time anytime you want.
Just book a separate follow up consultation and we can answer all of your questions.
Any diet questions you've got or medication questions or concerns.
They're best off worked with a consultation time.
Because that also allows me to add all of your notes in your file.
It's important to do that in the file.
Otherwise, it gets pretty confusing.
If everyone gives me different bits of advice and nothing is recorded, I haven't got a clue
where I'm going from day to day with people.
Best to hold questions because sometimes my inbox has 25 different questions from people
coming through.
I'm having to email people now saying, "Look, please hold the questions until we catch up
next."
I'll try to answer all of your questions during consultation.
If there is any confusion, usually at the end, I ask people, "Have you got any further
questions?"
or I just explain the protocol again and then if a person wants to, they can book a subsequent
time even before that three or four weeks if there is any confusion at all.
If you're thinking about a consultation, as I mentioned, I'm always happy to see people.
I'm going to be working with patients for a few more years yet hopefully.
If you've got any more questions for me, please fire them off.
Send me some questions through YouTube.
I'll be pleased to answer those questions as well.
That way, everybody benefits.
I was also thinking about doing some live feed through YouTube, some live broadcasting.
But now in hindsight, it's not a good idea because only people in certain areas like
Sweden or Scandinavia would benefit.
Whereas, the rest of world get nothing from that.
So I prefer to work with YouTube because if that way, if I answer your questions, they
go up as a YouTube video, everybody can benefit from the videos.
It's not just something that people can get from time to time.
Just please bear that in mind.
I hope that gives you a bit of information on the protocol.
Consultation forms are available at time of consultation, so it's a standard Word document
you fill out.
They get emailed back.
Any test results get emailed to me prior.
They get printed off and go into a file.
Any tests that are required at time of consultation, we normally get patients to do that before
they do their follow up visit.
I hope that gives you enough information on how to book a consultation.
Online or Skype is never a problem.
Thanks for tuning in.