| is never reliable, since you don't know the source or context of any of the evaluations, and since the population submitting ratings is self-selectign. In fact, any patient-based rating system, even if one knows the patients and their situations, is inevitably based not on the patient's objective understanding of how well the doctor understands medicine, but on a subjective evaluation of how comfortable the patient is with the doctor. It's entirely possible to have a very capable doctor that no one is happy with (because of his bedside manner), or a hopelessly incompetent one who is very reassuring (but can easily convince people that if there is a health problem, he's doing his best and understands the issue well). |
