Characteristics of Exceptionally Good Doctors: A Protocol for a Cross-Sectional Survey of Adults

Abstract

Background Doctors constitute a significant proportion of a very large number of medical interactions. They are known to vary in the quality of their work, with some having an exceptionally beneficial effect on patients’ physical health. In a qualitative study, we interviewed medical doctors on their opinions and experiences of exceptionally good doctors. Their responses and the results from previous research are used as a basis for this proposed cross-sectional survey directed to members of the public on their encounters with exceptionally good doctors. The primary aim of this cross-sectional study is to describe the characteristics of exceptional doctors as reported by a large representative sample of adult patients. Methods and Analysis A mixed qualitative and quantitative anonymous cross-sectional survey of 500 Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) respondents, who have met one or more exceptionally good doctors in their life, will be conducted. Information requested will include reasons for nominating a particular doctor; experience of how that doctor differs from other and average doctors; and 34 5-point Likert scale questions on the characteristics of that doctor and the same Likert questions for the average doctor. An opportunity to report their experience in free-text form will be provided. Sample size will be sufficient to obtain a margin of error of 4%. The authors will provide descriptive statistics, including graphs of the Likert scale question responses; conduct factor analysis for internal validity; investigate satisficing and logical inconsistencies; and explore whether there are multiple types of exceptionally good doctors. Discussion Previous surveys of patients’ perceptions of doctors exist though none have focused on exceptionally good doctors. The expected results will include a list of characteristics that are important to patients in determining exceptionally good doctors.

Characteristics of exceptionally good Doctors—A survey of public adults

“…The survey reporting follows the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines [ 40 ]. All details are presented in a previously published protocol [ 39 ].…”

“…MTurk workers aged 55 and older and female MTurk workers were oversampled to get to a 50/50 gender split and to have 1/3 of respondents aged over 55. Further details are provided in the protocol paper [ 39 ]. Otherwise there were no further exclusions or inclusions – any MTurk worker could participate.…”

“…In a recent qualitative study [ 38 ], 13 medical doctors stated their thoughts on what are the characteristics of exceptionally good doctors, with being both exceptionally skilled and very good at patient communication considered important. The doctor experiences and definitions from the qualitative study were used to design the present cross-sectional survey of the general public on their opinions on what makes an exceptionally good doctor, and their experiences of such doctors [ 39 ]. The survey objective was to determine how commonly exceptionally good doctors are encountered by patients, what are the characteristics of exceptionally good doctors according to patients, whether there are multiple types of exceptionally good doctors, if yes, whether patients evaluate different types of exceptionally good doctors more or less positively and whether patients evaluate exceptionally good doctors differently from average doctors.…”