The Impact of Social Media Presence, Age, and Patient Reported Wait Times on Physician Review Websites for Sports Medicine Surgeons

Overview

Journal J Clin Orthop Trauma

Specialty Orthopedics

Date 2021 Aug 5

PMID 34350098

Citations 8

Authors

Andrew J Sama

David P Matichak

Nicholas C Schiller

Deborah J Li

Chester J Donnally 3rd

Dhanur Damodar

Brian J Cole

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: When choosing physicians, patients often review options online via physician review websites, which may influence decisions on providers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of social media usage, age, and patient reported wait times on online ratings for three popular review websites.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine database was used to extract demographic information for all listed sports medicine surgeons in Florida. Overall ratings, number of ratings and comments, and patient reported wait-times were recorded from three leading review websites (Healthgrades.com, Vitals.com, Google.com). Professionally focused SM accounts were searched for each physician on Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Instagram, and LinkedIn.com.

Results: 102 orthopaedic sports medicine surgeons were included. At least one form of social media was used by 62.4% of our cohort. Those with social media had higher overall online physician ratings out of 5.00 across all review websites (Google:4.65vs4.44, p = 0.05; Healthgrades:4.41vs4.15, p = 0.03; Vitals:4.43vs4.14, p = 0.01). In bivariate analysis, older age was associated with lower ratings on Health Grades (Absolute difference (AD) -0.26, p < 0.0001), and social media was linked to higher ratings (Google: AD 0.21, p = 0.05; Healthgrades: AD 0.26, p = 0.03; Vitals: AD 0.29, p = 0.008). Longer wait times were associated with lower ratings in a dose-dependent manner in both bivariate and multivariable analysis.

Conclusions: Social media use among sports medicine surgeons correlated with higher overall physician ratings. Potentially, younger surgeons increase social media use because of a heightened concern for online image, whereas older surgeons may have less value in using online platforms to capitalize on an online presence. Older age and increased patient reported wait times in office had a negative correlation with online reviews, which highlights that factors beyond the surgeon's skill sets can influence overall ratings.

Citing Articles

Patient Perception of Social Media Use by Orthopaedic Surgeons: A Pilot Study.

Johnson A, Wharton B, Geraghty E, Bradsell H, Ishikawa A, McCarty E Orthop J Sports Med. 2024; 12(3):23259671241232707.

PMID: 38465258 PMC: 10921856. DOI: 10.1177/23259671241232707.

Association Between Social Media Activity and Ratings on Physician Review Websites Among Orthopaedic Surgeons With an Active Online Media Presence.

Kerzner B, Dasari S, Swindell H, Obioha O, Khan Z, Rea P Orthop J Sports Med. 2024; 12(2):23259671231209794.

PMID: 38332847 PMC: 10851734. DOI: 10.1177/23259671231209794.

Instagram Outperforms Twitter in Driving Social Media Engagement Among Sports Medicine Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Edmonson A, Clark S, Ierulli V, Mulcahey M Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. 2024; 6(1):100850.

PMID: 38234992 PMC: 10792685. DOI: 10.1016/j.asmr.2023.100850.

Perceptions of social media utilization among orthopaedic foot and ankle surgeons.

Salimy M, Narain A, Curtin P, Bellinger E, Patel A J Foot Ankle Res. 2023; 16(1):58.

PMID: 37684639 PMC: 10486077. DOI: 10.1186/s13047-023-00658-4.

Patients Prefer Medical Facts and Educational Videos From Sports Medicine Surgeons on Social Media.

Freiberger C, Kale N, Gallagher M, Ierulli V, OBrien M, Mulcahey M Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil. 2023; 5(3):e649-e656.

PMID: 37388862 PMC: 10300541. DOI: 10.1016/j.asmr.2023.03.004.

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