Taking Patients’ Narratives about Clinicians from Anecdote to Science

Schlesinger, Mark; Grob, Rachel; Shaller, Dale; Martino, Steven C.; Parker, Andrew M.; Finucane, Melissa L.; Cerully, Jennifer L.; Rybowski, Lise

doi:10.1056/nejmsb1502361

Cited by 98 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Given the demand by consumers for information about physicians, other methods for publishing patient feedback are being developed, 5 and some health systems are beginning to report quantitative reviews and narratives drawn from patient experience surveys. 6 Because of the scarcity of reviews on commercial sites, one of these other methods of publishing patient feedback may emerge as the dominant route by which patients seek reviews about physicians.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Website Characteristics and Physician Reviews on Commercial Physician-Rating Websites

Lagu

Metayer

Moran

et al. 2017

JAMA

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Patients are increasingly seeking information about physicians online. Nearly 60% report that online reviews are important when choosing a physician. 1 Because publicly reported quality data are not reported at the physician level, patients must consult physician-rating websites to find such reviews. 2 The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to describe the structure of commercial physicianrating websites and the quantity of physician reviews on these sites. Methods |During September 2016, we searched Google for websites that allowed patients to review physicians in the United States, using search terms such as rate my doctor. We included active sites that were written in English, available to the public, allowed patients to leave reviews, did not require a subscription, and allowed searching by physician name. We excluded websites that were affiliated with an insurance company or health system or were limited to a single specialty. We cross-referenced search results against a published list, 3 added any websites that met inclusion criteria, and recorded website characteristics. We then used publicly available lists of registered and active physicians to identify a random sample of 600 physicians from 3 metropolitan areas (Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; and Dallas, Texas). We searched each website for reviews and calculated mean and median number of reviews per physician per site using SAS (SAS Institute), version 9.3.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Website Characteristics and Physician Reviews on Commercial Physician-Rating Websites

Lagu

Metayer

Moran

et al. 2017

JAMA

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“…One examination of Yelp restaurant reviews found that every 1-star increase in the Yelp rating of a restaurant leads to a 5%–9% increase in revenues 5. It is not surprising that user reviews have such a big impact, as narratives can help support and clarify decision making 50. This is particularly true when given complex choices, like those in healthcare decisions 50 51.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nursing home Facebook reviews: who has them, and how do they relate to other measures of quality and experience?

Hefele

Campbell

et al. 2017

BMJ Qual Saf

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Given the disconnect between Facebook ratings and other, more scientifically grounded measures of quality, concerns about the validity and use of social media ratings are warranted. However, it is likely consumers will increasingly turn to social media ratings of NHs, given the lack of consumer perspective on most state and federal report card sites. Thus, social media ratings may present a unique opportunity for healthcare report cards to capture real-time consumer voice.

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“…It has been argued that narratives could be included in decision aids to show a statistically representative proportion of positive and negative patient experiences, in combination with stating the actual proportions observed in the literature and health care providers' experience. (15,16,53) …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(55) The relative influence of anti-treatment and pro-treatment narratives may partially be corrected by presenting narratives that are more representative of typical patient experiences, or including a warning that narratives may not be representative of typical patient experiences. (15,16,56,57) Another strategy for counteracting disproportionate influence of narratives on patients' decisions is to provide visual displays. (15) Visual displays can help people with higher and lower numeracy to better process statistical risk information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Anti- Versus Pro-Vaccine Narratives on Responses by Recipients Varying in Numeracy: A Cross-sectional Survey-Based Experiment

et al. 2017

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Purpose To inform their health decisions, patients may seek narratives describing other patients' evaluations of their treatment experiences. Narratives can provide anti-treatment or pro-treatment evaluative meaning that especially low-numerate patients struggle to derive from statistical information. Here, we examined whether anti-vaccine (vs. pro-vaccine) narratives had relatively stronger effects on the perceived informativeness and judged vaccination probabilities reported among recipients with lower (vs. higher) numeracy. Methods Participants (n=1113) from a nationally representative US internet panel were randomly assigned to an anti-vaccine or pro-vaccine narrative, as presented by a patient discussing a personal experience, a physician discussing a patient's experience, or a physician discussing the experience of 50 patients. Anti-vaccine narratives described flu experiences of patients who got the flu after getting vaccinated; pro-vaccine narratives described flu experiences of patients who got the flu after not getting vaccinated. Participants indicated their probability of getting vaccinated and how informative they perceived the narratives to be. Results Participants with lower numeracy generally perceived narratives as more informative. By comparison, participants with higher numeracy rated especially anti-vaccine narratives as less informative. Anti-vaccine narratives reduced judged vaccination probabilities compared to pro-vaccine narratives, especially among participants with lower numeracy. Mediation analyses suggested that low-numerate individuals' vaccination probabilities were reduced by anti-vaccine narratives – and to a lesser extent boosted by pro-vaccine narratives – due to their perceiving narratives as more informative. These findings held whether narratives were provided by patients or physicians. Conclusions Patients with lower numeracy may rely more on narrative information when making their decisions. Findings have implications for the development of health communications and decision aids.

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Taking Patients’ Narratives about Clinicians from Anecdote to Science

Cited by 98 publications

References 40 publications

Website Characteristics and Physician Reviews on Commercial Physician-Rating Websites

Website Characteristics and Physician Reviews on Commercial Physician-Rating Websites

Nursing home Facebook reviews: who has them, and how do they relate to other measures of quality and experience?

Effects of Anti- Versus Pro-Vaccine Narratives on Responses by Recipients Varying in Numeracy: A Cross-sectional Survey-Based Experiment

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