I am proud to announce the launch of Eugene Pediatric Associates’ redesigned website! EugenePeds.com serves as an extension of your child’s medical home, and it has been a passion project of mine since the website was first launched in 2009. It is a place where families can access valuable information, resources and support whenever they need it, day or night. I want to share with you how this website began and how it has become one of the many ways we care for families.
How it all began
Over the course of every person’s life, a handful of people come along who make a lasting impact, either professionally or personally, or both. For me, two of those people are Dana Turell, president of Turell Group, and Kelli Warner, public relations manager at Turell Group, a Eugene marketing agency.
Along with their team, Dana and Kelli have helped me reach out to parents in my practice via this robust website and through a strong social media presence. This unique partnership between our medical practice and our marketing company has helped me provide important health information about kids for parents all over the world. In the process, Dana and Kelli have become what I value most in life—trusted friends.
The genesis of this special bond started in 2008 when I first dropped in on Dana. I knew I wanted to create a first-of-its-kind website that showcased a mix of my own personal advice on raising healthy, happy kids coupled with the latest medical information from the American Academy of Pediatrics. As we began to imagine how the site would connect with parents, Dana asked me a simple question: “What three words best describe you as a pediatrician?” Those three adjectives—passionate, caring and personal—remain next to my photo on the website and still ring true all these years later.
The initial months spent creating the Eugene Pediatric Associates website were intense. At the time, my kids were little, so I worked on it from bedtime until dawn on many nights, writing everything I wanted to share about my favorite topics: children’s health and parenting. Every word came from my heart and was expertly edited and then built into a website that launched in April 2009. That year, we won a Stevie Award (the website equivalent of a Grammy) as the top website in the nation for content—beating out the likes of Nike, CNN and National Geographic. Now, a decade later, that site has been visited over a million times by people in every state in the U.S. and 97 countries around the world.
More resources and information
This redesigned site offers visitors a fresh new look and much greater functionality. I have reread and updated every single page of the site and added lots of new topics in the hope of helping parents and kids.
Videos
Included in the site is a huge amount of information in video form, much of which I owe to the work of Kelli Warner.
I first met Kelli years ago when she was a news anchor on KMTR-TV, covering a regular segment called, “What’s Going Around?” Terrified to be on camera, I learned the trick was just to have a conversation with Kelli and to not think about the camera lens in my face. What started as an occasional update on specific illnesses affecting our community became a reliable platform to share vital health and parenting information. Imagine my joy when Turell Group hired Kelli and she was able to help me create new opportunities to share information with families in our community. Kelli and our physicians have since created countless news pieces for TV, newspaper and local magazines, in addition to more than 75 Healthy Kids segments that air on KMTR, all of which are accessible by topic on EugenePeds.com.
Social media
Always innovating, both Dana and Kelli envisioned Eugene Pediatrics broadening its community impact even more. They encouraged me to take the big leap into social media. I was hesitant at first—most doctors don’t find social media professionally comfortable for lots of reasons. But finally, recognizing that so many parents are active on social media sites, I took the plunge into Facebook. This novel connection to people blossomed, and we now have more followers than any other medical practice in the region.
More recently, we have started to shoot Facebook Live segments from my kitchen to allow longer chats between parents, myself and other professionals from the medical and behavioral health sides of our practice. We now have an Instagram page, as well. Social media has allowed us to quickly share accurate medical information and timely health alerts to a broader audience. Whenever there is news that is important to our patients’ families, Kelli helps me get the word out.
To me, Turell Group isn’t just a marketing agency—they are partners in caring for our community.
It takes a village
When I convened a city-wide summit on teen suicide prevention last spring, everyone at Turell Group worked tirelessly to help coordinate the event. From contacting attendees to preparing the presentation and setting up the venue, Dana, Kelli and their colleagues pitched in. Much of their time was donated. That event solidified my opinion that their hearts truly are dedicated to working with me for the good of kids, families and our entire community.
To understand what this website means to me, check out this video. I shot it ten years ago at the hospital after a long morning of doing videos about basic baby care. Although the hairdo is a little outdated, the words I spoke still ring true. This website, like everything that Dana, Kelli and Turell Group have helped me put together, is my heart song. It has always been my immense honor to care for children, and it’s truly a blessing to do so in the company of dear friends who have helped me along the way.