What can we learn from physicians' online biographies to help in choosing a doctor? Not much. A content analysis of primary care physician biographies

• Published in: Journal of communication in healthcare 2013-07, Vol.6 (2), p.122-127
• Main Authors: Perrault, Evan K, Smreker, Karen C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Family practice; General practice; Healthcare systems; Information seeking behavior; Physician-patient relations; Physicians
• ISSN: 1753-8068; 1753-8076
• DOI: 10.1179/1753807612Y.0000000027

Objective To determine whether the qualities and characteristics potential patients would like to know about doctors before making a choice about who to visit are present in their online biographies. Methods More than 1400 randomly selected family practice physician biographies were coded from 152 health systems in the United States. Biographies were coded for the presence of 24 pieces of information (e.g. was a photo present, was the doctor's medical schooling listed, and were personal hobbies/interests noted). Results The most popular pieces of information provided are the doctor's gender, the doctor's clinic address, where the doctor went to medical school and performed residency, the doctor's board certification, and the doctor's photograph. Information, as indicated from prior studies, that patients think is important to know when choosing a new family physician (e.g. communication skills, interests outside of medicine) are rarely able to be determined from biographies. Conclusion Healthcare systems are not offering potential patients all of the information they might like to know about a doctor before making a choice of who to initially visit. Practice implications Adding just a little more information to biographies (e.g. personal interests of the doctor) could make a sometimes difficult choice easier on prospective patients. The inclusion of physician-introductory videos could also be helpful.