Digital business card for doctors and private practices: what to put on it, and what not to collect

Updated November 2, 2026 · by POC Card

A patient keeps your card for the day something hurts. A colleague keeps it for the day they need to refer someone. Neither should have to search for you.

This guide is for physicians, dentists, therapists and anyone who runs or works in a private practice: what to put on a digital card, which number to give, and the part most guides skip, which is what a business card should never collect.

Who hands out these cards

Physicians and surgeons held about 862,800 jobs in the United States in 2025, and dentists about 161,400, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 12 percent of dentists were self-employed, and many physicians work in group practices. In a small practice, the card is often the only marketing there is: it goes to new patients, to the pharmacist next door and to the doctors who send you referrals.

What to put on it

Detail	Why
Your name, credentials and specialty	A referral needs to know if you are the right person before calling.
Your NPI number	It is already public in the federal NPI Registry, so showing it exposes nothing new, and it saves a colleague or an insurer the lookup.
The office line, not your personal mobile	Patients save what you give them and call it at night. Give the number that has someone, or a message, behind it.
After-hours instructions	The after-hours line, or a short “for emergencies call 911”.
A booking link	Most first contacts are “when can I come in?”.
Your patient portal	Results, refills and questions about symptoms belong there, not in a text to your phone.
Address, with a map link, and parking	What a new patient needs the morning of the appointment.
Insurance plans accepted, behind a link	Networks change every year. A link can be updated; a printed list cannot.
Fax or referral instructions	For the doctors who refer to you. Many offices still send referrals that way.

Check your state medical or dental board’s advertising rules, and your hospital or group’s brand rules, before you print. Some require how your title and specialty are written.

What a business card should never collect

A business card is a way to reach you. It is not a patient portal, and it should not receive health information.

POC Card is not built to hold patient health information and is not offered as a HIPAA business associate. So set up the card the way the rest of this guide describes:

• Turn off the contact form, or ask only for name and phone. In the card settings, “Ask visitors for their details” can be turned off, and “What to ask for” can be set to “Name and phone”. Leave out the option with a notes field, so nobody types symptoms into it.
• Send clinical questions to the portal. Put the portal link near the top, and say what goes there: results, refills, questions about care.
• Keep the card about you, not about a condition. Your name, your specialty and how to book. A page titled “Treatment for [condition]” says something about whoever opens it.

Two more things to know. Every BIZ Card counts its visits, and if the visitor accepts cookies, Google Analytics measures the page too; the visitor decides in the cookie banner. And if you work for a hospital or a large group, ask its compliance office before using any tool for patient contact, this one included.

Be in the patient’s phone before they need you

The best moment is at the front desk, after the first visit: ask the patient to scan the card and save the contact there. Then the office number is in their phone, under your name, the next time they need it.

The QR code shown at the bottom of your card on screen carries your contact inside it, so their phone can save you without a connection, depending on its reader. The printed QR code and the NFC tag open your card online, so they need signal. If you move offices or change the number later, the contact they already saved does not update by itself. The card does, which is why the link matters more than the number printed next to it.

Try it before you decide: open the demo card below on your phone and save the contact.

Live demo

This card is real. Try it.

Tap it the way your client would. Every button works.

1. 1

   Save the contact. Their phone offers to add you, photo included.

2. 2

   Leave your details. That is how your clients reach your address book.

3. 3

   Share it. By link, QR or WhatsApp, from the card itself.

Scan with your camera to open it on your own phone. That is exactly how your clients receive it. Open the full card

Start freeSee the plans

Referrals from other doctors

The colleagues who send you patients need different things from the patients themselves: your specialty in plain words, the conditions you see and do not see, the fax or referral instructions and a direct line for providers, if you have one. Put those on the card and hand it out at the next hospital meeting or conference. One card, and nobody calls the front desk to ask for the fax number.

Spanish-speaking patients

The buttons and labels on a BIZ Card come in English and Spanish (and French and Portuguese), and whoever opens it can switch from the language menu. What you write appears as you wrote it, so if you or your staff speak Spanish, say so in your bio. A patient who reads “Se habla español” knows they can call without bringing someone to translate.

When you change practice or phone

You edit the profile, and the link, the QR code and the NFC card you already handed out keep working, so patients you saw years ago still find you.

If you stop paying for a plan, you get 15 days of grace and then the card goes to basic mode: your name, title, company, phone, WhatsApp, email and photo stay visible, and nothing is deleted. If you would rather not think about renewals, there is a lifetime plan that you pay once.

A short list before you print

• The number on the card is the office line, not my personal mobile.
• The contact form is off, or asks only for name and phone.
• The portal link is near the top and says what goes there.
• My NPI, credentials and specialty are written the way my board and my group want.
• I scanned the QR code with an iPhone and with an Android phone, and saved my own contact to see how it looks.

You can try a BIZ Card for 14 days without registering a payment card: set it up, put it at the front desk for two weeks and see how many patients save it.

Sources, read on November 2, 2026

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Physicians and Surgeons, Occupational Outlook Handbook
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Dentists, Occupational Outlook Handbook
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: NPPES data dissemination (the NPI Registry is public)

Try it free for 14 days

30-day money-back guarantee on plans · A physical card can be returned until it ships

• Pay by card (Stripe) or PayPal
• Refunds handled by a person
• No automatic renewal
• Support by email and WhatsApp

Questions people ask before buying.

Before you choose

Learn and compare.

• GuideDigital business card for insurance agents: what it must show, and how clients find you after an accident
• GuideDigital business card for real estate agents: what to put on it, and how it should still work in 11 years
• GuideNFC or QR: which to print
• GuideDigital cards for a team: what to decide before you buy

Email

Do not fill in

See details

Your next client is one tap away.

The full Personal plan for fourteen days. No card on file and no automatic charge.

Start the free trialSee the plans