Physician Rating Sites: Pew-pew-pew!
Bleah. Yet another article about Web sites for rating doctors.
Is anyone else really tired of seeing these articles and pretending these sites matter? They might one day, but they don’t now.
Anyway, the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Please tell me I’m not the only one who quietly thinks “pew-pew-pew!” to himself every time Pew is mentioned?) says:
Nearly half (47%) of internet users, or 35% of adults, have turned to the internet for information about doctors or other health professionals.”
Nothing surprising there.
“These health information seekers, however, are not likely to post their own reviews of doctors: just 7% of those who looked for information about doctors online (and 4% of all internet users) report posting a review of a doctor online.”
Well, nothing surprising there, either. The vast majority of Wikipedia’s users (or Digg’s) are there to read, not to contribute. Isn’t this the overwhelming trend in most “social media”? (And wouldn’t noting this context be important? What does this item from Pew mean without such context?)
I’ll state again that I think every physician rating site I’ve seen is useless. When patrons (or friends) ask me how to find a good specialist, I recommend avoiding these sites. The advice I gave one family member was to get in touch with local, regional, and national patient support groups for the diagnosed (or suspected) condition necessitating a visit to a specialist. If you want the opinion of informed patients, that’s where you’ll find it.
Just for good measure:
I like lolcats. Sue me.
Like this post? Subscribe to the RSS feed!
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 am
Bleah. Yet another article about Web sites for rating doctors. Is anyone else really tired of seeing these articles and pretending these sites matter? They might one day, but they don’t now. Anyway, the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Please tell me I’m not the only one who quietly thinks “pew-pew-pew!” to [...]
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 am
Bleah. Yet another article about Web sites for rating doctors. Is anyone else really tired of seeing these articles and pretending these sites matter? They might one day, but they don’t now. Anyway, the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Please tell me I’m not the only one who quietly thinks “pew-pew-pew!” to [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Since you like lolcats, I thought I’d pass this along:
http://leavesamark.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/lolpharma/
September 4th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Sarah, that’s GREAT! Thanks!
September 4th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] via: http://leavesamark.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/lolpharma/ (Thanks to Sarah for pointing this out.) [...]