Social media offers countless opportunities to build relationships with prospective patients. But what most influences a patient’s decision to consult and ultimately choose a surgeon?
Adam Honeybrook, MBBS, a facial plastic surgeon in Lafayette, La., says he and the authors of “Rhytidectomy: A Social Media Analysis,” a poster presented at Cosmetic Surgery Forum 2019, were surprised by what they found in their research.
Interpersonal skills — not reviews or before-and-after photos — top the list.
“We thought reviews and before-and-after photos might have a higher impact, but in fact … the impact of these factors was quite low,” says Dr. Honeybrook, a native of Sydney, Australia.
In the study, Dr. Honeybrook et al. examined factors that influenced facelift patients when choosing their surgeons.
“We looked at this particular procedure, facelift surgery, to see how patients choose their surgeon, how they interact with their surgeon, and whether they actually like the results,” says Dr. Honeybrook, explaining that many patients will not discuss unsatisfactory results with their surgeon.
Using the patient review site RealSelf, researchers collected data from 1,876 reviews written between April 2017 and June 2019. They recorded general demographics as well as the reasons patients suggested they have the procedure, why they chose their surgeon, how long they spent researching about their surgeon, recovery time, postoperative pain, satisfaction with results, and RealSelf Worth It scores.
In each review, “…we looked at different data points that we wanted to collect,” says Dr. Honeybrook, noting that not every review included every single data point, so they had to be opportunistic in the data collection process.
A total of 88% of facelift patients were female and 12% were male. The largest patient group (40%) was in the 60 to 69 age group, with the 50 to 59 age group (36%) coming in second. The remaining patients were under 50 years old (16%) and over 70 years old (8%).
Before choosing facelift surgeons, 38% of patients reported “extensive” (1 to 2 years) research and 70% consulted more than one surgeon.
The researchers found that patients had two main reasons for choosing facelift surgeons: personality/demeanor (26%) and their ability to answer questions (23%).
Other factors included credentials (9%), skill/skill (8%), returning patient (6%), and surgeon recommendations (5%). In less than 5% were before and after photos, positive reviews, positive emotional response, referral, price and appearance of surgeon. Almost half of the reviews (42%) did not mention a reason. Only 2% reported regretting their choice of surgeon.
The overall Worth It score for this facelift surgery patient population was 96.9%.
“The most important factors for patients choosing their facelift surgeon were related to their ability to communicate, build rapport, have the right demeanor and answer their questions…” says Dr. Honeybrook. “So for facelifts, at least, patients mostly chose their surgeon … for interpersonal reasons.”
According to Dr. Honeybrook, it is widely believed by physicians that patients weigh patient reviews and before and after photos most often when choosing their doctors.
“But those were the key communication factors, talking to them clearly and understanding them, where they wanted to go with their surgery and also understanding what questions they had,” he says.
Bibliographical references:
Honeybrook A, Arnold M, Locketz GD, et al. (2019, December). Social media analysis. Poster presented at the Cosmetic Surgery Forum, Nashville, TN.
Dr. Honeybrook
