Four researchers from the Center for Quality of Care Research published a study, "Patients’ Evaluations of Health Care Providers in the Era of Social Networking: An Analysis of Physician-Rating Websites", online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The work has garnered quite a bit coverage by media outlets such as Boston.com and the Los Angeles Times.

Drs. Tara Lagu, Michael Rothberg, and Peter Lindenauer, along with CQCR research assistant Nicholas Hannon, set out to describe the structure and content of physician-rating websites and to assess their potential value to patients.

After reviewing 33 physician-rating websites, such as Angie's List and Healthgrades.com, they found that, overall, the sites: had limited use by patients (only 190 reviews were found for 300 randomly selected Boston doctors); were not especially user-friendly; had incomplete physician information; and carried pervasive advertising. Despite the fears of physicians’ organizations about online reviews, most patient reviews were positive, and much of the negative commentary was constructive.

This article was published in the July 2010 Academics@Baystate newsletter.