More than a decade ago, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate its medical board to post physician profiles online. With the click of a mouse, patients could find a physician’s hospital affiliations, hospital and medical board disciplinary actions, medical malpractice payments and other data. The Massachusetts board, like others across the nation, had long collected much of the information, which was available to those who called or wrote. But the state’s idea to display physician data on an easily accessible Web site was novel in 1996. Many physicians were skeptical in the beginning, resulting in a heated debate of how to post information that was useful to the public and fair to doctors. Today, 65 of 70 boards in the United States put physician profiles online, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards. But what is included in those profiles varies. Most states post licensure status and disciplinary history on the Web sites they’ve created. The more detailed sites, though, include items such as medical malpractice information and criminal convictions, with only 16 and 17 boards, respectively, posting that information. It makes online physician profiles an evolving arena, especially as consumers continue to demand more and more about doctors.
Please click on the link below to read the complete American Medical News article:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/12/08/prsa1208.htm
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