Reputation Management and Content Control: An Analysis of Radiation Oncologists’ Digital Identities

Publication date: Available online 19 August 2017
Source:International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics
Author(s): Arpan V. Prabhu, Christopher Kim, Eison De Guzman, Eric Zhao, Evan Madill, Jonathan Cohen, David R. Hansberry, Nitin Agarwal, Dwight E. Heron, Sushil Beriwal
IntroductionGoogle is the most popular search engine in the United States, and patients are increasingly relying on online webpages to seek information about individual physicians. This study aims to characterize what patients find when they search for radiation oncologists online.Material & MethodsThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Comparable Downloadable File was used to identify all Medicare-participating radiation oncologists in the United States and Puerto Rico. Each radiation oncologist was characterized by medical school education, year of graduation, city of practice, gender, and affiliation to an academic institution. Using a custom Google-based search engine, up to the top 10 search results for each physician were extracted and categorized as relating to: (1) physician, hospital, or healthcare system, (2) third-party, (3) social media, (4) academic journal articles, or (5) other.ResultsAmongst all U.S. health care providers within CMS, 4,443 self-identified as being radiation oncologists and yielded 40,764 search results. Of these, 1,161 (26.1%) and 3,282 (73.9%) were classified as academic and nonacademic radiation oncologists, respectively. At least one search result was obtained for 4,398 physicians (99.0%). Physician, hospital and healthcare-controlled websites (16,006; 39.3%) and third-party websites (10,494; 25.7%) were the two most observed domain types. Social media platforms accounted for 2,729 (6.7%) hits, and peer-reviewed academic journal websites accounted for 1,397 (3.4%) results. About 6.8% and 6.7% of the top ten links were social media websites for academic and nonacademic radiation oncologists, respectably.ConclusionsMost radiation oncologists lack self-controlled online content when patients search within the first page of Google search results. With the strong presence of third-party websites and lack of social media, opportunities exist for radiation oncologists to increase their online presence to improve patient-provider communication and better the image of the overall field. We discuss strategies to improve online visibility.

Teaser

The authors identified all Medicare-participating radiation oncologists in the United States and Puerto Rico and developed a customized Google-based search engine. Up tothe top 10 search results for each physician were extracted and categorized. Results for academic and nonacademic radiation oncologists were compared. Most radiation, oncologists lacked self-controlled online content in the first page of Google search results. Strategies for radiation oncologists to improve their digital presence are discussed.


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