Web searches for doctors can be complicated by conjecture, and misleading information
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Need to find a hotel in Starkville, Miss.? Find one with confidence at TripAdvisor.com, or any number of online websites.
Looking for lunch in Bethesda, Md.? Consult Washingtonian.com.
But if it's a cardiologist you seek, you're better off consulting your general practitioner, a relative or a friend.
"Choosing a physician is more complicated than choosing a good restaurant," said Nancy H. Nielsen, immediate past president of the American Medical Association. "Patients owe it to themselves to use the best available resources when making this important decision."
Web-savvy patients might be tempted to check out the myriad sites rating physicians, but for the present, say experts, don't. Many sites are well-intentioned but lack the response numbers to be accurate reflections. Others can be downright misleading.
Doctors and health-care professionals say it's best to take such ratings with a prescription-strength grain of salt.
"A lot of those ratings sites are useless for the evaluation of an individual physician," said Shaili Jain, who began a website (www.thebedsidemanner.com) in response to the dearth of constructive criticism found on the Internet.
"The need came because I realized that patients were increasingly going to the Internet for all sorts of things -- to read about a medical device, if I tell them about a certain condition or medication, they'll go read about that.
"Then I started to wonder: What else are they reading online?"
A 2009 Harris Poll estimates that 67 percent of American adults report looking for medical information online.
Dr. Jain, who is associated with Stanford University, decided to google her own name and found it on a few such sites. She didn't get any specific feedback, good or bad, from her exploration, but couldn't help but notice the scathing, anonymous attacks on other physicians.
So she began the bedside manner site, where positive feedback is encouraged and blogging, rather than just a numerical ratings system, is employed.
"I wanted to capture the useful aspects, as opposed to the vicious rant. Vicious rants just lead to defensive behavior, and we don't need any more defensiveness in the medical community," Dr. Jain said. "We need transparency."
First Published March 10, 2010 12:00 am
