In a way, physician rating sites are a much needed wake-up call for doctors. It will force them to pay attention to their internet reputation. Negative information that comes up during a Google search can sink a practice. Take a look at this case:

Fischel, who says he can’t reveal further details of the case because of a legal agreement he has since reached with the patient, soon discovered the pervasive power of the Internet. He says that his business was severely affected and that he suffered significant monetary and emotional costs because of the patient’s postings. Fischel hired a lawyer to try to make the patient stop writing about him and became so depressed he considered leaving medicine.

‘Doctors, in general, are sitting ducks,’ Fischel says. ‘It’s impossible to fight back. The courts make it so you have almost no options.’