James Lloyd, MD, of  Brookfield, Wis., had a marketing problem. He needed patients and had built a beautiful, information-filled website with all of the necessary components: bio, patient information and a large education section. It had all the right keywords for search engines to find, and everything appeared to be correct. So why wasn't he showing up on searches for his own name and service line?

Nick Shamie, MD, co-director of the UCLA Comprehensive Spine Center and associate professor in orthopedic surgery at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, discusses the importance of spine surgeons working with other specialists on clinical and policy issues related to spine care.

Here are seven ways spine surgeons can succeed in competitive markets.

Kenneth Pettine, MD, a spine surgeon in Loveland, Colo., and co-founder of the Society for Ambulatory Spine Surgery, discusses the inaugural meeting of SASS last November in Chicago.