A number of useful sites on the internet can help you find a doctor, whether you are looking for a primary care doctor, the second opinion or you need to know something about certain medical conditions. What you need to find an online doctor is a computer with internet access, the ability to use search engine sites like Google, and methods to distinguish whether the information you find is accurate or not.
Here are some practical tips for finding doctors online:
Determine the type of doctor you need to talk to. Are you looking for pediatricians or internal medicine doctors? Narrow your search will get faster results. If you want to ask a question of a cardiologist, then you will look for something like “Find an online cardiologist” or “Talk to cardiology.” This is more defined than if you enter “find your doctor online.” Your search is likely to make a lot of information about doctors online. You must be able to filter if the information you find is accurate.
Explore different medical sites so you can choose the most convenient sites. There is a free site where you can ask for anything and everything for a doctor but someone will charge you before you can ask a question to the doctor.
Read reviews online. The more reviews you read, the more likely you are to get a more complete understanding of certain doctors. In addition, look for specific details about the review site, especially about specific examples of what the doctor is doing right or wrong. Look for patterns too. If you find complaints about certain doctors, read about complaints. If certain complaints or complaint patterns are found from more than one patient, find a doctor elsewhere. Try to distinguish between complaints about doctor staff, and complaints about doctors. Many excellent doctors are good at practicing drugs, but not so good at managing great staff. This can cause frustration with administrative services provided by their offices, but that does not mean that you cannot trust the doctor.
Various doctor sites that you can use to find leading doctors include:
Directory of Doctors – These sites provide readers list of basic facts about their doctors and locations. This list also includes information such as education, experience, and doctor’s practice.
The council certification site – for more comprehensive information about doctor education and training, look for sites such as American medical specialties and American osteopathic associations. Learning the ability of a doctor is important so you can find out whether certain doctors can help you with your request.
Assessment of doctors and ranking sites – knowing how competent the doctor must also be considered you when searching for doctors online. These sites have a sophisticated algorithm that analyzes doctor’s competencies, but they can ‘gamed’, so use it just as a factor in your search. Most sites also include the opinions and patient reviews to help you in your evaluation.
License sites and government source experiences – What these sites say is whether certain doctors are licensed to practice their profession. Here, you can also find information about disciplinary action.
Site personal health advice – when you visit a medical site or health, there is often a doctor or an expert angle where you can ask about related medical questions. You can also use the information you find here in your search.