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Doctor accountability websites

undiagnosed

Senior Member
Messages
246
Location
United States

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
The old Black Triangle campaign, I think, had a list of patients who died under the new DWP legislation. I think they are back up and running but they were shut down because their ISP was threatened with legal action, due to supposed copyright violation. This site was updated daily about people who died as a result of DWP action. I used to have it open on my browser at all times.

Any public site operating in the country of question can be shut down this way. Private information will not be seen by most who need to see it. I do not know of a good solution except, perhaps, trying to publish in a country that is a data haven.
 

undiagnosed

Senior Member
Messages
246
Location
United States
The old Black Triangle campaign, I think, had a list of patients who died under the new DWP legislation. I think they are back up and running but they were shut down because their ISP was threatened with legal action, due to supposed copyright violation. This site was updated daily about people who died as a result of DWP action. I used to have it open on my browser at all times.

Any public site operating in the country of question can be shut down this way. Private information will not be seen by most who need to see it. I do not know of a good solution except, perhaps, trying to publish in a country that is a data haven.

To be clear, are you referring to the site http://blacktrianglecampaign.org? I didn't see a list there, not sure if it was removed? In any case, I was thinking about something more specific that ties outcomes to specific doctors. From what I've seen, none of the doctor review websites out there are very useful. The reviews I've seen are so generic that it's hard to get any actionable data from them. I'm really interested in outcomes and I haven't seen that information in reviews. The thing I've been contemplating is how would you gauge the trustworthiness of a stated outcome.

As you mention, a single server could be shut down, that's why peer-to-peer architectures such as bittorrent were created. It would be possible for authorities to try and go after individuals (like what happened with the RIAA and music pirating), but it would be very difficult to completely shut down the network if enough users are participating.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
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undiagnosed

Senior Member
Messages
246
Location
United States
You mean the new black triangle site? The old site is gone. Long gone. Of course I could be misremembering the name of the site. Its been years and my memory is bad.

I think sites reviewing doctors do exist. You need to be careful to stick to the facts though.

Yes, I guess so. That would probably explain why there is no list. Yes, doctor review sites exist, but like I was saying they haven't proved to be useful (at least for me). I've looked up various doctors before going to them who have had all 5 star reviews with generic comments like "great doctor." My experience was anything but, and of course I could add a review to the site to indicate that however it would be more of an opinion at this point until I truly get a diagnosis. That's why I think outcomes are important. Once I have a real diagnosis, then I can point out objectively how terrible the various doctors were. But I kind of think that would separate opinion based reviews from fact based outcomes.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
In the US it is quite difficult to get information on whether a doctor has been sanctioned or restricted. You can look up their names on state medical board sites but each state has different policies on what they report. I've just been reading an article on this--What You Don't Know About Your Doctor Could Hurt You. Still I do check new doctors I see on the state medical board.

The usual review sites that come up on an internet search are not likely to report actions by medical boards. And, of course, medical boards are composed mainly of other doctors.
 

undiagnosed

Senior Member
Messages
246
Location
United States
In the US it is quite difficult to get information on whether a doctor has been sanctioned or restricted. You can look up their names on state medical board sites but each state has different policies on what they report. I've just been reading an article on this--What You Don't Know About Your Doctor Could Hurt You. Still I do check new doctors I see on the state medical board.

The usual review sites that come up on an internet search are not likely to report actions by medical boards. And, of course, medical boards are composed mainly of other doctors.

And what would it even take for them to be put on the list? Ya, I think I would trust patient reported outcomes over state medical board reports.
 

Daffodil

Senior Member
Messages
5,875
in Canada, we have a site called "RateMDs.com" and you can at least anonymously give your opinions about the doctor. doctors here tried to sue to get the site taken down but they lost. I think they have those sites in the USA too. Is there anything like that in the UK?
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
in Canada, we have a site called "RateMDs.com" and you can at least anonymously give your opinions about the doctor. doctors here tried to sue to get the site taken down but they lost. I think they have those sites in the USA too.
They do, but they don't show actions by medical boards.
 

Never Give Up

Collecting improvements, until there's a cure.
Messages
971
There is a site called Angie's List where people rate all kinds of things, including doctor's, however those rated have the right to know who rated them. I don't want to be sued so I do not give negative reviews.

Yelp is another, but someone was successfully sued for a bad review recently.

Any such site would have to be untraceable.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
Angie's list and Yelp are both pay-for-play lists now. They remove negative reviews if you pay them.
 

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,389
Location
Concord, NH
There is a site called Angie's List where people rate all kinds of things, including doctor's, however those rated have the right to know who rated them. I don't want to be sued so I do not give negative reviews.

Yelp is another, but someone was successfully sued for a bad review recently.

Any such site would have to be untraceable.

Sued? Thought we had Freedom of Speech?

GG
 

barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
Angie's list and Yelp are both pay-for-play lists now. They remove negative reviews if you pay them.

What? That sounds like a form of blackmail. :mad:

If someone wanted to write a review on yelp or angie's list wouldn't you have to pay?

I have seen reviews on websites of places such as restaurants , Target, Barnes and Nobel and similar types of stores where anyone can leave a review. Some of the negative comments are about little things so it's hard to figure out which ones are legitimate reviews or if someone had a one time bad experience or if it's really a problem. The ones I usually look at are for individual products. But again you have to read carefully.

Barnes and Noble is the worse. You will read reviews that say, "Anyone out there?" as well as lots of comments that are the vampire, werewolf type of stories that are popular with teenagers. I am not kidding! Actually, some of them are fairly well written. It's a shame they don't use their talents in a more constructive way.

I haven't been there in a while so don't know if it's still a problem.

Sorry for getting off topic but it does show how reviews can be subjective. I probably could have left out the B&N part.:D
 
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