The Impact of Web-Based Ratings on Patient Choice of a Primary Care Physician Versus a Specialist: Randomized Controlled Experiment

Abstract

Background Physician review websites have empowered prospective patients to acquire information about physicians. However, little is known about how Web-based ratings on different aspects of a physician may affect patients’ selection of physicians differently. Objective The objectives of this study were to examine (1) how patients weigh ratings on a physician’s technical skills and interpersonal skills in their selection of physicians and (2) whether and how people’s choice of a primary care physician versus a specialist is affected differently by Web-based ratings. Methods A 2×2×2×2 between-subjects experiment was conducted. Over 600 participants were recruited through a crowdsourcing website and randomly assigned to view a mockup physician review Web page that contained information on a physician’s basic information and patients’ ratings. After reviewing the Web page, participants were asked to complete a survey on their perceptions of the physician and willingness to seek health care from the physician. Results The results showed that participants were more willing to choose a physician with higher ratings on technical skills than on interpersonal skills compared with a physician with higher ratings on interpersonal skills than on technical skills, t 369.96 =22.36, P <.001, Cohen d =1.22. In the selection of different types of physicians, patients were more likely to choose a specialist with higher ratings on technical skills than on interpersonal skills, compared with a primary care physician with the same ratings, F 1,521 =5.34, P =.021. Conclusions The findings suggest that people place more weight on technical skills than interpersonal skills in their selection of a physician based on their ratings on the Web. Specifically, people are more likely to make a compromise on interpersonal skills in their choice of a specialist compared with a primary care physician. This study emphasizes the importance of examining Web-based physician ratings in a more nuanced way in relation to the selection of different types of physicians. Trial Registration ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN91316463; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN91316463

Internet Use, Risk Awareness, and Demographic Characteristics Associated With Engagement in Preventive Behaviors and Testing: Cross-Sectional Survey on COVID-19 in the United States

“…Besides acquiring information through active search, people are also incidentally exposed to health information online [ 15 ]. Health information received online not only fills an information gap but also influences people’s health decision making [ 16 , 17 ]. Besides the internet, personal experiences serve as a prominent means to acquire information.…”

Pre-consultation information about one’s physician can affect trust and treatment outcome expectations

“…The present results are the first to indicate that written pre-consultation information about physicians' skills, which is increasingly available and consulted online, does not only affect patients' selection of a physician [1,4], but also patients' pre-consultation trust and treatment outcome expectancies. Trust and outcome expectancies in turn are known to impact the patient-physician relationship [5,6] and treatment adherence and outcomes [10,11,[13][14][15][16] and are considered core mechanisms of placebo effects [24].…”

“…This information may contain objective information (e.g., about physicians' competencies), provided by, for example, a hospital website [2], or it may consist of patients experiences (e.g., of empathic skills) placed on social media or public physician rating websites [3]. While previous research found that such online information may influence patients' choice of physician [1,4], it is largely unknown how such information may affect patients' trust in physicians and treatment outcome expectancies, which are important predictors of treatment outcomes. Particularly the communication of physicians' competence and empathic skills may impact whether patients experience their physician as trustworthy [5,6].…”

Influencing factors and mechanism of doctor consultation volume on online medical consultation platforms based on physician review analysis

“…Although some studies have explored the factors that patients pay attention to in the process of consultation through behavioral experiments (Li and Hubner, 2019), qualitative analysis (Asanad et al, 2018;Detz et al, 2013;Lagu et al, 2019;Menon, 2017;Orhurhu et al, 2019;Ryskina et al, 2020), quantitative analysis (Li et al, 2019a) or text mining methods (Hao and Zhang, 2016;Liu et al, 2019), the topics analyzed in these studies are not sufficiently Physician review analysis comprehensive. We list some of the factors that have already been discovered or studied in Table 1.…”