Investigating the Structural and Textual Characteristics of Internet Physicians Review.

The Internet increases information transparency in several ways, and one way is to allow patients and caregivers access to needed information. It improves the autonomy of medical decision-making, and further creates better physician-patient communication. Internet physician review, as a type of popular medical and health information, improves patients and caregivers' understanding of doctor selection and supports proactive health decision-making. This study collects Internet physician reviews from two Taiwan-based health information websites - Good Doctor and Health, and DocHos. The analysis framework comprises both structural and textual aspects, each with distinct analytical focuses. The structural analysis includes length of reviews and paragraph structure. The textual analysis includes nature of the reviews, when in the clinical encounter process is reviewed, intent of the reviews, themes of the review, and review strategies. This study hopes to understand the role and function of the Internet physician reviews in the process of health information communication, as well as the applications on physicians' practice of clinical medicine and patients and caregivers' medical decision-making process. It may provide insight into the development of patient-centered rather than institution-centered evaluation criteria for healthcare quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]