DOCTOR Project launches consumer-friendly reports on physicians

[audio m4a="http://healthbb.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/hbdew0011-david-e-williams-interviews-jim-chase-about-the-doctor-project.m4a"][/audio]Patients hunger for reliable, unbiased and easy-to-understand information to help them choose a physician. In 2012, community-based regional health improvement collaboratives in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin collaborated with Consumer Reports and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to publish magazine inserts to help consumers in those communities choose primary care doctors.The inserts received rave reviews, and now the original partners are recruiting additional communities to join a new, larger phase of the work, code named the DOCTOR Project. In this podcast interview, Jim Chase, president of Minnesota Community Management, discusses the new initiative, what communities need to do to participate, and how the work will help consumers. He also describes how the information will differ from commercial and government sites and how the DOCTOR Project ties in with other initiatives.—By healthcare consultant David E. Williams of the Health Business Group