New York Buzz

Thanks to what has been dubbed the “consumer-empowerment movement,” the trend in ratings sites is flourishing across all service industries – including that of healthcare.

The healthcare system and its practitioners are up for grabs on no-holds-barred sites like HealthGrades.com and RateMDs.com where patients can (be)rate physicians and/or hospitals. But one new site aims to make the playing field a little more evenhanded.

Alijor.com is an online healthcare directory where patients can search for and rate physicians as well as more non-traditional specialists like acupuncturists and herbal medicine practitioners. But, unlike its competitors, all of the providers in Alijor’s database are listed voluntarily. They have explicitly agreed to be evaluated and to have their personal information listed on the site (including their fees and email addresses!).

While other sites pull off their information from private and public records, Alijor CEO Allison Guimard believes in respecting a doctor’s right to privacy – even if that means having a smaller selection of medical practitioners than her competitors.

As someone whose significant other is among the many physicians disgruntled by the lack of say in being listed on these doctor-rating sites, I applaud Alijor.com for taking a risk in the name of fairness.

* I decided to face the public eye and post my photo on Facestat, a new site that encourages users to judge – from a single photo – if a person is attractive or ugly, conservative or liberal, smart or ditzy, etc. Will keep you posted with the results…