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. 2022 Jun;42(1):283-286.

A Large Number of Reviews on Physician Rating Websites May Reflect Reputation Management

Shyam Ramachandran  1 , David Ring  1 , David Langerhuizen  1 , Gregg Vagner  1
Affiliations

A Large Number of Reviews on Physician Rating Websites May Reflect Reputation Management

Shyam Ramachandran et al. Iowa Orthop J. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Physicians with a large number of reviews and a high rating may be employing reputation management strategies. Specialists may be more likely than non-specialists to employ such strategies. This should be apparent in a study of online physician reviews on physician rating websites (PRW).

Methods: Using one physician rating website, we gathered orthopedic surgeon and family physician reviews. We measured Spearman correlations between the number of reviews and average numerical rating and used chi-squared to test threshold relationships.

Results: There were very small negative Spear-man correlations between the number of online reviews and the average numerical rating for orthopedic surgeons (p= -0.097, p-value=<0.001) family medicine physicians (p= -0.170, p-value=<0.001; Figure 2). Physicians with more than 100 reviews had a greater average numerical rating than physicians with fewer than 50 reviews. Orthopedic surgeons are more likely than family medicine physicians to have a large number of reviews and average numerical rating greater than 3.

Conclusion: The small fraction of physician with a high number of reviews may be utilizing reputation management strategies, and this seems relatively specific to specialists rather than non-specialists. Level of Evidence: III.

Keywords: bias; family medicine; online ratings; online reviews; orthopedics; reputation management.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Orthopedic surgeons average rating plotted against number of reviews.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Family medicine physicians average rating plotted against number of reviews.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Histogram of number of online reviews for orthopedic surgeons.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Histogram of number of online reviews for family physicians.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Histogram of average ratings for orthopedic surgeons.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Histogram of average ratings for family physicians.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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