Back to 2025 Abstracts
Online Factors Influencing Patient-Reported Ratings of Hand Surgeons
Krishna N. Chopra, MA; Sameer R. Khawaja, BS; Joseph G. Monir, MD; Ozair R. Khawaja, HS; Shammah E. Udoudo, BS; Thomas J. McQuillan, MD; Michael B. Gottschalk, MD; Eric R. Wagner, MD
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA
INTRODUCTION: Online physician ratings serve as a model for patient satisfaction and play a key role in patient recruitment. This study examines the influence of different variables on average ratings and overall patient engagement with hand surgeons' profiles on physician review websites (PRWs). MATERIALS & METHODS: The American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) directory was queried for all actively practicing orthopaedic and plastic surgeons in the United States. Individuals were searched on various social media platforms for professional accounts. A summated online presence score was calculated to identify each cohort's top 20% of social media users. The use of a practice group or personal website was also recorded, as was a surgeon's practice setting (academic vs private) and region of practice. H-index was searched on Scopus. Patient ratings information was collected from Healthgrades, Google, and Vitals. RESULTS: A total of 97 orthopaedic and 102 plastic-trained surgeons were included in this review (Table 1). Private practice orthopaedic surgeons were found to have higher mean ratings on Healthgrades (3.8) than those in academic practice (3.0; p=0.031). When examining the overall cohort, private surgeons were likely to have significantly higher engagement rates on Google (42.5) compared to academic surgeons (14.2; p=0.008). While having a personalized biography on Healthgrades was not associated with higher ratings, it was associated with overall increased engagement through number of ratings (p=0.001) and comments (p=0.038). Among orthopaedics-trained surgeons, the top 20% of social media users were found to have significantly higher mean Healthgrades (4.7 vs 4.5) and Vitals ratings (4.7 vs 4.3) compared to the rest of the cohort (p<0.001). Among plastics-trained surgeons, the top 20% of social media users had significantly higher average Healthgrades (4.6 vs 4.3; p<0.001) and Google ratings (4.9 vs 4.6; p<0.05) than the rest of the cohort. Among all-comers, H-index was positively associated with Healthgrades ratings (p=0.010). Plastics-trained hand surgeons were overall more active on social media (Table 1) and had higher Healthgrades ratings on average (4.2) compared to their orthopaedics-trained counterparts (3.6; p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Social media utilization and research productivity can influence patient satisfaction by way of positive ratings and comments on PRWs. Prospective patients are much more likely to select surgeons with higher ratings; thus, hand surgeons should capitalize on opportunities to improve their patient-reported ratings on PRWs. 
Back to 2025 Abstracts
