How to Find a Doctor

If All Else Fails, the Internet Can Save You

First, a disclaimer: Reviews on doctor rating sites can sometimes be really bombastic. Nearly every doctor will anger a patient at some point by doing something like denying a prescription she requests, and the most disgruntled tend to be the ones who submit ratings. Jeremiah Frank, M.D., who has a private family practice in Massachusetts, says: “Several of my friends and colleagues, whom I consider to be excellent doctors, have surprisingly vitriolic reviews about them.” All the same, the newfangled ways of the internet can be a great resource—as long as you take reviews with a grain of salt.

There are tons of ratings sites out there, so we surveyed the most popular of them to figure out which seem worth our time. Strengths and weaknesses of each site will vary by the kind of search you perform, but we looked up three different docs on each, all with different specialties and in different urban/small town settings. Here’s what we found.