Despite controversy surrounding physician rating Web sites, their use by patients has been limited to date, and a majority of reviews appear to be positive, according to a new study.
The study, which appeared in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, identified 33 physician-rating Web sites (there are currently an estimated 50), which contained 190 reviews for 81 physicians. Researchers found that 88 percent of reviews were positive, 6 percent were negative and 6 percent were neutral. Generalists and subspecialists did not significantly differ in number or nature of reviews, according to the study.
In a 2007 study by the California HealthCare Foundation, researchers found that only 26 percent of Internet users, used the Internet to find ratings of physicians or other healthcare professionals. The study also found that only 2 percent of users who saw a rating made a change based on what it said.
Researchers from the more recent study said they identified several narrative reviews that appeared to be written by the physicians themselves. Findings like this are why physician organizations like the American Medical Association have been opposed to the sites, said the report, because there is no way to confirm the identity of the patient.
Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie's List, a rating site that includes ratings for 200,000 healthcare providers, says her site doesn't allow consumers to post anonymously. She says the site also provides e-mail alerts to physicians whenever a report is made.
On the other hand, RateMDs.com, which has more than a million visitors a month, does allow patients to post anonymously. The sites's co-founder John Swapceinski says that he and his team look for suspicious activity that might indicate a doctor is trying to spam their own ratings.
"We have automated spam filters running a couple times a week, looking for same IP address, same cookies, browsers, and how many ratings," he said.
Swapceinski says if ratings for a doctor are flagged as suspicious, then the user will have to create an account for a period of six months to rate that particular doctor.
Because patients are the main priority of the site, he says it doesn't currently have a function that notifies doctors when a report has been made, but he says that they may have it in the future.
