Investigation of Radiation Oncologists’ Awareness of Online Reputation Management (Preprint)

Abstract

Cover LetterThe objective of our study is to investigate whether radiation oncologists are aware of their online reputation. We are interested in evaluating the degree to which radiation oncologists manage their online reputation. We believe that online reputation management (ORM) is largely unknown by most practicing radiation oncologists, or not given much emphasis. Our survey assesses what percentage of radiation oncologists are concerned about patient satisfaction, what percentage are aware of ORM, and what percentage actively manage their online reputation as well as what specific strategies they may utilize. We are interested in comparing whether differences exist based on a physician's type of practice (private versus academic) and if this affects their knowledge or use of ORM. Our goal is to help educate radiation oncologists about the permanence of online forums, the implications of published online content, and to provide strategies for managing one's online reputation going forward.We would like to take the opportunity to opt-in to JMIR's Open Peer Review experiment and that we agree to pay the Article Processing Fee in case of acceptance. Lastly, this study has been published as an Abstract. BackgroundOnline Reputation Management (ORM) is an emerging practice strategy that emphasizes the systematic and proactive monitoring of online reviews relating to one's professional reputation. ObjectivesWe developed this survey project to assess whether radiation oncologists are aware of ORM, and how it is utilized in their practices. We hypothesized that ORM is largely unknown by most practicing radiation oncologists, and that little time is spent actively managing their reputations. MethodsAn online survey was submitted to 1,222 radiation oncologists using the Qualtrics research platform. Physician emails were gathered from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) member directory. 85 physicians initiated the survey while 76 physicians completed ≥94% (15/16) of the survey questions and were subsequently used in our analyses. The survey consisted of 15 questions querying practice demographics, patient satisfaction determination, ORM understanding, and activities to address ORM and one question for physicians to opt-in to a $50 Amazon card raffle. The survey data was summarized using a frequency table and data was analyzed using ChiSquare and Fisher's Exact test. ResultsWe calculated a 7% (85/1,222) response rate for our survey with a completion rate of 89% (76/85). A majority of respondents (n = 68/76, 89%) endorsed being somewhat or strongly concerned about patient satisfaction (P < .001). However, 58% (n = 44/76) reported spending zero hours per week reviewing or managing their online reputation and 39% (n = 30/76) reported spending <1 hour per week (P < .001). A majority of physicians (n = 43/76, 57%) endorsed no familiarity with ORM (P < .001), and 70% (n = 53/76) did not actively manage their online reputation (P < .001). Although 83% (n = 63/76) of respondents strongly or somewhat believed th...