RateMD.com: are you on
there? |
Saskatoon FP Dr Christine Otani
was understandably nervous when she logged on to the
website RateMD.com to read what her patients had to
say (anonymously) about her. Remarks range from high
praise to disgruntlement. "Amazing!" proclaimed one
patient. "Very insensitive re: female infertility,"
accused another. She needn't have worried too much:
her overall score was a respectable 4.2 out of five.
But many of her colleagues don't
fare nearly as well.
Browsing through ratings of the
700-odd Canadian doctors who have earned a place on
the website, it isn't very hard to see why it makes
them nervous. Complaints run the gamut, from the reproachful
("he's careless, irresponsible and self-centered") to
the bizarre (the woman who says her ob/gyn caused her
son's death) to more serious accusations of malpractice
("This surgeon performed a surgery on me that was not
needed and almost killed me"). The claims have attracted
the attention of both the Canadian Medical Protective
Association (CMPA) and the Canadian Medical Association
(CMA). Still, RateMDs.com's creator, New York-based
entrepreneur John Swapceinski, says 70% of the entries
are positive, and maintains there's nothing illegal
about the site.
ROLE
REVERSAL
Just three-and-a-half years old, RateMDs.com already
features over 36,000 American doctors (the Canadian
section of the site was launched at the same time) and
attracts around 140,000 visitors a month. Users are
invited to enter anonymous ratings and comments —
"give your doctor a check-up," the homepage implores
— or to add more doctors to the database.
The idea for the site came in 2002
when Mr Swapceinski's Hong Kong-born girlfriend complained
that several doctors had been impatient and rude to
her because of her difficulty speaking English. The
site is intended to be a useful tool to help patients
select a new doctor, he says. It may be useful for doctors
as well, he suggests, to get feedback from their patients.
But Dr Otani, like many of her
colleagues, has some reservations. "If there's anything
I can do better to help patients, I'd do it," she says.
"But I'm not sure this is the proper forum to discuss
it."
WEB
OF LIBELS
Many doctors are concerned about what's being written
about them, and they're getting their medical associations
to do something about it. Last month, the CMPA and the
CMA sent letters to Mr Swapceinski demanding that seven
"clearly defamatory" comments be removed and their authors'
identities handed over. Mr Swapceinski has deleted two
of the comments in question — one claimed the doctor
"will kill you with his unprofessional treatment"; the
other said the author was "butchered" — but refuses
to reveal the sources.
Mr Swapceinski admits he and his
staff have to delete or redact about 2% of submitted
comments — generally ones that claim a doctor did
something illegal. One memorable entry, he says, reported
that a doctor had a glass of vodka on his desk during
a visit. He maintains the website is quite safe from
being sued in the US — though no one has tried
yet.
But Canadian law is different.
"Canada has more stringent laws about defamation," says
Lonny Rosen, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in healthcare
IT and privacy. Libel, explains Mr Rosen, could apply
if a statement is factual in nature but cannot be substantiated
and is harmful to the physician's reputation. So calling
a doctor a jerk isn't libellous but claiming he or she
did something illegal could very well be.
Mr Rosen's advice to doctors who
find something potentially libellous written about them
on the internet is to get legal advice immediately.
Often, a simple letter from a lawyer is enough to get
a website to remove the offending comments.
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