Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2018 May 14;8(5):e019067.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019067.

Physicians' attitudes towards the media and peer-review selection of the 'best cancer doctor': comparison of two different selection methods

Dong Wook Shin  1   2   3 , Juhee Cho  4   5 , Hyung Kook Yang  6 , So Young Kim  6   7 , Soohyeon Lee  8 , Eun Joo Nam  6 , Joo Seop Chung  9 , Jeong-Soo Im  10 , Keeho Park  6 , Jong Hyock Park  6   11
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Physicians' attitudes towards the media and peer-review selection of the 'best cancer doctor': comparison of two different selection methods

Dong Wook Shin et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: The choice of doctor is an important issue for patients with cancer, and the reputation of the doctor is the single most important factor for patients to choose a doctor. Media are providing information about the 'best cancer doctor', but they vary widely in their selection methodology. We investigated cancer physicians' attitudes towards the selection of the 'best cancer doctor' by the media, by comparing two different selection methodologies: selection by media personnel or selection through peer-review system.

Design: Nationwide, cross-sectional survey.

Setting: National Cancer Center and 12 Regional Cancer Centers across Korea.

Participants: A total of 680 cancer care physicians participated in the survey (75.5% participation rate), and two were excluded due to incomplete response.

Main outcome measures: Physicians' opinions on the credibility, fairness, validity, helpfulness to patients, their intention to use the information and helpfulness to improve the quality of cancer care of the two different methods.

Results: Only a few physicians believed that the selection method of the 'best cancer doctor' by the media personnel was credible (9.1%), fair (6.1%) or valid (10.0%). In contrast, the majority agreed that the peer-selection method of the 'best doctor' is credible (74.7%), fair (64.7%) and valid (67.4%). More physicians believed the latter methods would be useful for patients when selecting their doctor (38.5% vs 82.2%) and may lead to improvement of the quality of cancer care from the perspective of the healthcare system (12.6% vs 59.8%). The need for ensuring objectiveness and transparency was also raised.

Conclusion: Physicians showed different attitudes towards two different selection methods. Regulations or guidelines for selecting the 'best cancer doctor' and for disclosing the information should be considered in order to control the quality of the information and to protect the customers.

Keywords: best cancer doctor; media; oncology; reputation; selection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Shin DW, Park JH, Shim EJ, et al. . The development of a comprehensive needs assessment tool for cancer-caregivers in patient-caregiver dyads. Psychooncology 2011;20:1342–52. 10.1002/pon.1857 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shim EJ, Lee KS, Park JH, et al. . Comprehensive needs assessment tool in cancer (CNAT): the development and validation. Support Care Cancer 2011;19:1957–68. 10.1007/s00520-010-1037-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bozic KJ, Kaufman D, Chan VC, et al. . Factors that influence provider selection for elective total joint arthroplasty. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2013;471:1865–72. 10.1007/s11999-012-2640-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schwartz LM, Woloshin S, Birkmeyer JD. How do elderly patients decide where to go for major surgery? Telephone interview survey. BMJ 2005;331:821 10.1136/bmj.38614.449016.DE - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. American Cancer Society. Choosing a doctor and a hospital 2012. http://www.cancer.org/treatment/findingandpayingfortreatment/choosingyou...

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources