The authors found that few sites allowed the user to search by clinical condition, sex of physician, hospital affiliation, languages spoken, or insurance accepted. Across the 28 websites, there were 8,133 quantitative reviews for the 600 physicians. Among physicians with at least one review on any site, the median number was 7 reviews per physician across all sites. One-third of sampled physicians did not have a review on any site.
The researchers write that despite certain study limitations, "these results demonstrate that it is difficult for a prospective patient to find (for any given physician on any commercial physician-rating website) a quantity of reviews that would accurately relay the experience of care with that physician."
"Methods that use systematic data collection (e.g., surveys) may have a greater chance of amassing a sufficient quantity and quality of reviews to allow patients to make inferences about patient experience of care."
This work is supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and from the National Institute of Child Health and Development of the National Institutes of Health. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc.
Lagu T, Metayer K, Moran M, Ortiz L, Priya A, Goff SL, Lindenauer PK.
Website Characteristics and Physician Reviews on Commercial Physician-Rating Websites.
JAMA. 2017;317(7):766-768. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.18553.