ArticleDigital health
Exploring UK doctors' attitudes towards online patient feedback: Thematic analysis of survey data.
Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Supporting general practices to develop green action plans to reduce carbon emissions: development and evaluation of the feasibility of a workshop-based intervention.Primary health care research & development · 2026Article
- Turning the gaze: Digital patient feedback and the silent pathology of the NHS.Sociology of health & illness · 2022Article
- The Utility of an Online Forward Triage Tool During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Health Care Provider and Health Authority Perspectives.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Implementing online patient feedback in a 'special measures' acute hospital: A case study using Normalisation Process Theory.Digital healthArticle
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionPatients are increasingly using online platforms to give feedback about their health-care experiences. Online feedback has been proposed as a way to drive transformative change in the health service through informing choice and improving quality. Attitudes held by health-care professionals influence the uptake of new technologies. Understanding these attitudes is essential in exploring the potential of online patient feedback as a standard feedback mechanism. This study explores the content of free-text comments left by doctors responding to a survey with the aim of understanding their attitudes towards online feedback.
methodsA cross-sectional online questionnaire was completed by 1001 UK primary and secondary-care doctors. Doctors were given the opportunity to leave a free-text comment about online patient feedback. Doctors' attitudes towards online patient feedback were identified and explored using thematic analysis. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to examine demographic differences between those doctors who left a comment and those who did not.
resultsThematic analysis identified five key interrelated themes: anonymity, confidentiality, representativeness, moderation/regulation of online feedback and platform type. The characteristics of those leaving a comment very closely matched those of the entire survey sample.
conclusionAcross the comments, the most prominent finding was a general scepticism and caution towards online feedback, with most of the key themes relating to the perceived limitations and challenges. Further work exploring ways of addressing and verifying online comments without breaching confidentiality could provide valuable information to health systems seeking to drive improvement through patient online feedback.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.