Study Design:
Descriptive analysis using publicly available data.
Objectives:
The
purpose of this study was 2-fold: to assess patient-rated
trustworthiness of spine surgeons as a whole and to assess if academic
proclivity, region of practice, or physician sex affects ratings of
patient perceived trust.
Methods:
Orthopedic
spine surgeons were randomly selected from the North American Spine
Society directory. Surgeon profiles on 3 online physician rating
websites, HealthGrades, Vitals, and RateMDs were analyzed for
patient-reported trustworthiness. Whether or not the surgeon had
published a PubMed-indexed paper in 2016 was assessed with regard to
trustworthiness scores. Total number of publications was also assessed.
Individuals with >300 publications were excluded due to the
likelihood of repeat names.
Results:
Recent
publication and total number of publications has no relationship with
online patient ratings of trustworthiness across all surgeons in this
study. Region of practice likewise has no influence on mean trust
ratings, yet varied levels of correlation are observed. Furthermore,
there was no difference in trust scores between male and female
surgeons.
Conclusion:
Total
academic proclivity via indexed publications does not correlate with
patient perceived physician trustworthiness among spine surgeons as
reported on physician review websites. Furthermore, region of practice
within the United States does not have an influence on these trust
scores. Likewise, there is no difference in trust score between female
and male spine surgeons. This study also highlights an increasing
utility for physician rating websites in spine surgery for evaluating
and monitoring patient perception.
No comments:
Post a Comment