Abstract

There is a growing reliance on online reviews in today’s digital world. As the influence of online reviews amplified in the competitive marketplace, so did the manipulation of reviews and evolution of fake reviews on these platforms. Like other consumer-oriented businesses, the healthcare industry has also succumbed to this phenomenon. However, health issues are much more personal, sensitive, complicated in nature requiring knowledge of medical terminologies and often coupled with myriad of interdependencies. In this study, we collated the literature on manipulation of online reviews, identified the gaps and proposed an approach, including validation of negative reviews of the 500 doctors from three different states: New York and Arizona in USA and New South Wales in Australia from the RateMDs website. The reviews of doctors was collected, which includes both numerical star ratings (1-low to 5-high) and textual feedback/comments. Compared to other existing research, this study will analyse the textual feedback which corresponds to the clinical quality of doctors (helpfulness and knowledge criteria) rather than process quality experiences. Our study will explore pathways to validate the negative reviews for platform provider and rank the doctors accordingly to minimise the risks in healthcare.

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