Perfect Patients started in a hotel room. Just two people from opposite sides of the world, three days together in New Zealand, and an idea about using the Internet to help chiropractors grow.
But the story begins a little earlier.
In 2003, Australian entrepreneur Steve Anson, who lived in Perth, was trying to create a website for his spouse’s chiropractic practice.
Back then, most chiropractic websites were little more than “brochureware” — the practice brochure rack transferred to a web page.
“I could see that a website could do far more than reproduce a practice brochure,” says Steve. “It could educate prospective patients and actually help attract and retain more of them.”
Steve understood technology. What he needed was someone who had chiropractic content that resonated with patients.
Years earlier, he remembered hearing Bill Esteb speak at an Australian Chiropractic Association event in Tasmania. Bill wasn’t a chiropractor, but a longtime chiropractic patient who had spent decades creating patient communication tools.
Steve gave him a call.
A few months later, Bill was going to be in New Zealand. Not exactly halfway, but they agreed to meet up.
More Than a Business Idea
For three days, as Bill recovered from jet lag, they sat in his hotel room talking.
They discovered they had read many of the same books. Shared similar values and the same Christian faith. Both were avid chiropractic patients who shared an unapologetic conviction about the profession.
“We genuinely believed the world would be a better place if everyone got adjusted,” smiles Bill.
“We saw the Internet as a way to help an underutilized and often misunderstood profession reach more people.”
That alignment mattered — because these new business partners lived some 10,000 miles apart.
Without a considerable amount of trust — and a new technology called Skype — the company might never have happened.
Two-hour conversations, Bill’s evening and Steve’s morning, became routine.
Chiropractic Was Already in Us
That passion for chiropractic was embedded in the Perfect Patients culture from the very beginning.
Early team members were chiropractic advocates too: spouses of chiropractors and former chiropractic assistants. Some early hires — many still with the company today — came directly from the practices of Perfect Patients clients.
These weren’t marketers who had chosen chiropractic as an attractive niche, but rather chiropractic advocates who mastered digital marketing to advance something they valued.
And that influenced the kind of websites they built.
Most chiropractic marketing understandably focused on what prospective patients were already searching for: relief from back pain, neck pain, headaches and other symptoms.
Perfect Patients saw a larger opportunity.
A website could certainly help someone find a chiropractor. But it could also help that person better understand chiropractic principles — its broader health and wellness possibilities. Why someone might use chiropractic beyond the relief of a symptom.
That philosophy even influenced the company name.
A “perfect patient” wasn’t simply someone with a spine. The idea was that a more knowledgeable patient would become a better, more committed practice member — someone attracted by a deeper understanding and appreciation of chiropractic.
The website could begin that process before the patient ever entered the practice.
Then 12 Chiropractors Said Yes
Perfect Patients launched in Australia in 2006.
Twelve chiropractors signed up in the first month.
Suddenly, Steve and Bill had a problem they were delighted to have. While they had been concentrating on marketing the service, now they had to build websites.
The founders quickly became account managers, website builders, and problem solvers. It was intense, occasionally chaotic, and a whole lot of fun.
Those first 12 clients suggested the idea just might work.
But success exposed a weakness.
Early on we believed exceptional content and design would carry the day. Then a prospective client reported what a competitor had said about us:
“Oh sure, they have the best design and content in the business. But they’ve neglected SEO. So, you’ll have a beautiful website — that no one will see.”
Ouch.
It stung because there was some truth in it. A major wake-up call.
The company doubled down on SEO and the increasingly complex “digital hygiene” required to help clients get found. As Google search algorithms evolved, so did Perfect Patients. Mobile arrived. Social media changed the landscape. Paid search became increasingly sophisticated. Today, AI is once again changing how prospective patients find and evaluate healthcare providers.
It was an early demonstration of something that remains one of our core values today: Growth.
Values That Were There From the Beginning
Growth wasn’t the only key value.
Trust was essential from day one.
Perfect Patients had a distributed workforce from the start, long before working from home became commonplace. With founders on opposite sides of the world and team members working independently, we had to trust each other to do what they said they would do and look after clients when nobody was looking over their shoulder.
Today, trust, growth and leadership remain three foundational Perfect Patients values.
- Trust means telling the truth, even when it’s difficult.
- Growth means continually becoming better so we can help our clients grow.
- Leadership means using our influence and resources to create hope for a better tomorrow.
And What About Vortala?
As Perfect Patients grew, Steve and Bill wondered if what they were learning could help other healthcare professions.
That required an umbrella organization capable of supporting multiple profession-specific businesses, which became Vortala — a name derived from “vertical portal.”
That history is worth mentioning because the relationship between the two names can occasionally cause confusion.
Perfect Patients wasn’t acquired by Vortala. Vortala grew out of Perfect Patients.
It allowed us to take what we were learning in chiropractic into dentistry, optometry, and other healthcare disciplines.
But chiropractic was our first love. Still is.
Twenty Years Later
Almost everything about digital marketing has changed since Steve and Bill sat in that New Zealand hotel room.
Google has changed. Websites have changed. Mobile and social media transformed the landscape. Paid advertising became more essential. Now AI is changing things again.
Perfect Patients has grown with it.
We now have more people, more technology, more data and two decades of experience helping thousands of chiropractors help millions of patients.
But underneath all that, the original idea remains surprisingly intact.
Behind every website is a chiropractor who took a risk and opened a practice. Someone with a team depending on them, a family to support, and patients they genuinely want to help.
And on the other side of that website is someone trying to decide whether chiropractic — and this particular chiropractor — is the right one for them.
Our job is to help bring those two parties together. And, in our own small way, help create a healthier world.
“Twenty years later, I still think of Perfect Patients as a chiropractic company first,” observes Steve. “Yes, we build websites and do SEO and digital marketing. But those are merely tools. The reason for doing it is helping chiropractors succeed and helping more people experience chiropractic.”
Whether you’ve been a Perfect Patients client for years, recently joined us, or are wondering whether we might be the right people to help grow your practice, we want you to know:
We love chiropractic. We want your practice to succeed. And we’d be honored to help you help more people.