title: JOURNAL CLUB: Radiologists' Online Identities: What Patients Find When They Search Radiologists by Name.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients are increasingly seeking online information regarding their health and their health care providers. Concurrently, more patients are accessing their electronic medical records, including their radiology reports, via online portals. Thus, this study aims to characterize what patients find when they search for radiologists online.
  
  
  METHODS
  All Medicare-participating U.S. radiologists were identified using the Physician Compare National Downloadable File dataset obtained from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Using a custom application, the top 10 Google search results for each radiologist in the national dataset were retrieved, and 90.5% of website domains with more than one occurrence were categorized as follows: physician or institution controlled, third party-controlled physician information systems, social media, or other. Aggregate and subgroup analyses were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of all U.S. health care providers recognized by CMS, 30,601 self-identified as radiologists. There was at least one search result for 30,600 radiologists (99.997%), for a total of 305,795 websites. Of all the domains, 69.8% were third party-controlled physician information systems, 17.7% were physician or institution controlled, 1.0% were social media platforms, 2.1% were other, and 9.5% were not classified. Nine of the top 10 most commonly encountered domains were commercially controlled third-party physician information systems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most U.S. radiologists lack self-controlled online content within the first page of Google search results. Opportunities exist for individual radiologists, radiology groups, academic departments, and professional societies to amend their online presence, control the content patients discover, and improve the visibility of the field at large.
authors: 1 Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University Hospital, 1364 Clifton Rd NE, Ste D125A, Atlanta, GA 30322.
authors: Arvind
authors: A
authors: Vijayasarathi
authors: 2 Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Loehfelm
authors: 1 Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University Hospital, 1364 Clifton Rd NE, Ste D125A, Atlanta, GA 30322.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Duszak
authors: 1 Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University Hospital, 1364 Clifton Rd NE, Ste D125A, Atlanta, GA 30322.
authors: C Matthew
authors: CM
authors: Hawkins
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet; D000072177:Radiologists / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057386:Search Engine; D061108:Social Media; D014481:United States
keywords: online presence; patient outreach; physician rating sites