Who's My Doctor: the doctor transparency project and why it mattered
The original Who's My Doctor idea was simple: patients make better decisions when they can understand the context around the people and organisations involved in their care.
Why this project mattered
Healthcare depends on trust, but trust is easier to build when important context is visible. Patients should be able to understand who is providing care, what role they have, what evidence supports public claims, and whether any commercial relationship could affect what they are being told.
The transparency project is about making context easier to inspect before a patient commits time, money, or a referral request.
What transparency can do
- Help patients distinguish a profile claim from an independent check.
- Make financial, commercial, ownership, or referral relationships easier to spot.
- Encourage patients to ask practical questions before booking or paying.
- Give clinics and practitioners a clearer standard for explaining what is known and what is still uncertain.
What transparency cannot do
Transparency cannot tell you whether a doctor, clinic, assessment, or treatment is right for your own situation. It cannot diagnose symptoms, judge clinical suitability, or replace a GP, NHS service, specialist, regulator, or professional register.
How this connects to the platform now
Today, Who's My Doctor applies that transparency idea to clinic search: clear profile context, visible claim status, practical access-route wording, source links where useful, and a firm rule that clinics and practitioners cannot buy the top position in organic search results.
- Search results are designed to support comparison, not to rank doctors by clinical quality.
- Claimed listings show that a clinic has a route to maintain the listing, not that the platform recommends the clinic.
- Useful links and profile claims should still be read critically, especially where commercial relationships may be relevant.
- Patients should confirm anything that would change their decision directly with the clinic, referrer, NHS service, or relevant register.
Transparency standards and further reading
- GMC: Identifying and managing conflicts of interest
Professional guidance for medical professionals on financial, commercial, and other interests that could affect patient trust.
- GMC: Good medical practice, trust and professionalism
GMC standards covering openness, honesty, conflicts of interest, and patient trust.
- CMS: Open Payments
The official United States database for payments and transfers of value reported by drug and medical device companies.
- GOV.UK: The NHS Constitution for England
Official NHS Constitution information about patient rights, involvement in decisions, and access to information.