Physician Reviews

The internet allows us to see reviews of our physicians, or of physicians we're thinking of seeing.

However, we're all aware of the dangers of believing online reviews of anything. It's very easy for people to hire people to write positive reviews. Or a disgruntled reader can write negative things. When the book The Four Corners Diet," which advocated low-carb eating, came out, someone didn't like something I said online (I think it was a suggestion that they should count the carbs in coffee) and proceeded to write negative reviews of the book, for which I was a coauthor.

The same applies to online reviews of physicians. Irl Hirsch, an endocrinologist who has had type 1 diabetes for most of his life, wrote this in an article titled "Ranting in 2020: Reflecting About the Past and the Future (with Concerns About the Present)":

"There are other frequent venues to evaluate physicians, particularly on the Internet. I was not even aware of physician evaluations on Yelp until I was emailed that I received a low grade (1 star out of 5) from a dissatisfied patient. I went to the site and indeed, I was a horrible disrespectful man, saying derogatory things about a woman's weight. Not only that, I had horrible body odor (at least no mention was made of my bad breath). In the email I received, I was told the poor review could be removed from the website for $3000. After checking with a few people, I learned this is a common scam and many of these evaluations are posted by swindlers looking to make a quick dollar."

I knew about negative reviews by disgruntled patients. But I'd never heard of review scams.

One more reason to not trust online reviews. If you do read them, see if there are at least several reviews that make similar points, but not so similar that they're probably written by the same person. Then if you decide to try that physician, keep the criticisms in mind and see if they seem to be valid.

The internet offers us a chance to get a lot of information with very little effort. It also offers us a chance to read lies.

Caveat emptor, buyer beware.