Physician and the Internet reputation

The internet has become a widely used tool for nearly everyone. The magic of search engines like Google allows you to find virtually anything at anytime.

With so much information accessible, it is often hard to decide what is true and what is not. It can be very frustrating.

In addition, it is now considered good business practice to search on potential candidates for jobs, promotions, etc. This comes at a high cost for some and especially the younger generation who feel much more at ease posting very personal things on sites like myspace and facebook.


Physicians are no exception and much information can be placed on the internet without your knowledge. It is wise business practice to do a search engine on some sort of routine basis to see what may or may not be out in cyberspace.

If there are gross errors or things to cause perception problems, it will be an opportunity to fix them or at least give a rebuttal.

Helpful hints for physicians and others include:
1. Monitor your name, your practice name, your partners name and any other key identifier
2. Check search engines, blogs and forums using Google, Yahoo etc.
3. There are paid services that can be subscribed to for monitoring purposes
4. For physicians, no information may be as detrimental as bad information, so check to see what is there.
5. If negativity is found, research the situation to see if the complaint or statement has merit. If not, provide facts and ask for corrections nicely and professionally.
6. If the citation is from a patient and is negative, offer to discuss the situation and then listen closely to help eliminate any misunderstandings and attempt to rectify the problem.


The internet is a tool that can be very helpful or very destructive. Use those search engines and become the Sherlock Holmes of your practice.