What is more important to you in choosing a doctor: (1) Bedside manner; or (2) Medical outcomes, i.e., success in performing a service that will get you better and/or keep you healthy?
Most people would choose #2, but virtually all the doctor finder services available in the U.S. focus on criteria like #1. There is a lack of concrete accurate information on how well doctors do, when doing what we hire them to do. There are over a dozen doctor finder services, including Definitive Healthcare, Doctor.Com, Doximity, Healthcare Bluebook, Healthgrades, Md.Com, Quantros, Ratemds, Sharecare, Vitals, Webmd, and Zocdoc. They typically assign ratings of one to five stars to each doctor, based on characteristics like friendliness of the doctor and staff, comfort of waiting room, ease of getting an appointment, insurance coverage and bedside manner, etc.
