The American Board of Internal Medicine determined online physician ratings written by patients do not reflect standard measures of clinical quality, according to a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
However, nearly one in three patients selects their physician based on website ratings, according to the study.
Researchers compared quality measures from 1,299 physicians who completed an ABIM practice improvement module with ratings for each physician published on eight free, publicly available health-based websites. Comments were not used in the evaluation.
The results may reflect the low number of available website ratings for physicians or low number of patients giving the ratings, lead author Bradley M. Gray, PhD, of ABIM said in a statement
"Our study is important because it is one of only a handful of studies to examine the ability of physician website ratings to reflect the quality of care patients are likely to receive," said Dr. Gray. "This study also highlights the need for more valid and reliable physician quality information to be made publicly available."
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