Consumers look up physicians online

Of the online tools that consumers use to compare cost and quality information and assess their own health risks, the most popular are "physician and facility finders." According to a survey by Forrester Research (iHealth Beat, Sept. 21, 2007), 41 percent of respondents have gone online to locate a physician or a health care facility.

However, only 19 percent of respondents said they were sure they were making the correct decision by using physician and facility finder tools. Just nine percent of the respondents said they used hospital quality comparison sites, and none reported using sites that offered physician quality data.