Peeling the Lid off of Self-Regulated Professions

A common complaint against professionals like doctors and lawyers, rightly or not, is that being self-regulated, review and discipline is opaque and biased. I’ve been wondering when we would see sites that review professionals and bring to the client more information about their service providers. Now, apparently – ratemds.com is up and running, and predictably, Canadian doctors seem to be lathered up about it. Strangest assertion in the piece: “But doctors say patients need to confront their physicians or even file a complaint with their local College of Physicians and Surgeons should they have concerns.” Sigh. This is of course exactly the point – those who use the ratings site likely do so because they know that these avenues won’t serve their needs. Surely the smarter approach is for the profession to embrace the technology as a tool for educating doctors about patient attitudes and problem MDs?