Should doctors give incentives to patients to post good reviews?
New York City ophthalmologist Dr. Emil W. Chynn of Park Avenue Laser in Manhattan sends patients home with a DVD of their procedure with an incentive to post their video on YouTube, write a glowing review of their surgery, and link to the doctor's website.
To motivate the patients, they are given the choice of $400 in free Botox or $100 off their Lasek procedure, which is different from LASIK.
Dr. Chynn leads a feature in the Fashion & Style section of the June 26 New York Times, exploring the ethical issues surrounding video patient reviews of plastic surgery and LASIK on YouTube. A quick look at YouTube revealed only 36 Lasek surgery videos linking to Park Avenue Laser as a result of the incentive program.
RealSelf depends heavily on unpaid patient reviews. Whether a review is written or filmed, it's obvious when the recommendation isn't genuine. Researching patients tend to subconsciously ignore content that isn't genuine when seeking to connect with a cosmetic practice, which suggests that a false review or the wrong kind of video will do more harm to a doctor's business than good.
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