Rating Doctors Online: It's About Time

Rich Barton, the guy who started Expedia and Zillow, a couple years ago told me that "everything that can be rated, will be rated."

But it seems that doctors are determined to fight the trend -- even though patients increasingly want that kind of information about their health care providers.

The latest development: A Web-based company called Medical Justice, started by a neurosurgeon, Jeffrey Segal, claims it "can put a stop to defamation of doctors on the Internet." The company basically takes the tack that doctors have nothing to gain from getting rated on-line by patients, so it offers a contract -- now apparently used by about 2,000 doctors -- that doctors can ask patients to sign before getting treated. The contract says the patient can't post comments or ratings on public Web sites.

Which is crazy. A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 80 percent of adults who go online look for health information -- and about 30 percent look for information about a specific doctor or hospital.

Sites like RateMDs.com are growing in popularity, along with the overall trend that has people turning to TripAdvisor, Yelp, RateMyProfessors.com, and other sites for ratings.

Doctors, who use cutting-edge technology to treat patients, have generally been reluctant to jump on the Internet. My own doctor, who is otherwise terrific, not only won't use the Net -- he doesn't have a computer anywhere in his practice. He probably doesn't even know that he's got a high rating on RateMDs.com.

But this is the way the world is moving. No profession is going to be able to hide from getting rated -- not doctors, not lawyers, not journalists.

If health care gets overhauled under the Obama Administration, you can bet the Internet will be a big part of how that works -- and it should include ways to rate and comment on doctors and the rest of the health care system.

Medical Justice and other efforts to stop the ratings trend have about as much chance to succeed as the record companies had in stopping music file sharing.

by Kevin Maney