DoctorxDentist removes at least 9,700 doctors from its platform, aims to be more transparent

DOCTORXDENTIST, a medical-review and consumer-education website, has removed the profiles of at least 9,700 doctors after regulatory and industry bodies criticised the startup and said they were considering legal action against it.

Checks by The Business Times as at 4pm found that the site now lists about 300 doctors. BT understands that this is still not the final number of doctors who will be listed on the platform, given that the startup is still revamping its directory.

Those who remain on the site are paying doctors, contributors and doctors who opted to have their profiles on the platform, said DoctorxDentist's general manager Tyr Ding.

At least 4,700 doctors in private practice have been delisted since Saturday, she told BT. The rest of those who were delisted are practising in public hospitals; their names were removed after a closed-door meeting on Nov 13 with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) and the Singapore Medical Association (SMA), she added.

The final list of medical practitioners on DoctorxDentist's platform is likely to be confirmed only in two weeks, after the startup verifies the names of doctors who want to opt in against its database.

The company removed the profiles of most doctors on the platform using "an algorithm that keeps doctors conservatively", and is in the process of manually relisting doctors who are supposed to be on the platform, said Ms Ding.

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Doctor profiles that were removed include those on a list that SMA published on Saturday, Ms Ding said. The list, which SMA began compiling on Nov 3, comprised more than 1,100 doctors who do not wish to be associated with DoctorxDentist.

On Saturday night, the MOH issued a circular that said the SMC is "presently exploring avenues of legal recourse" against the platform for having failed to meet demands made by the ministry and the SMC.

The startup had not removed, in full, the details of doctors listed on its platform for review by Friday, which the SMC said the startup took from its website without written permission.

DoctorxDentist has also yet to publish an erratum on its website to clarify that the MOH has not endorsed its platform. MOH had given the startup until Nov 17 to do so.

It is unclear whether the SMC is still considering legal action after the startup began delisting doctor profiles. BT has reached out to the SMC for comment.

Following complaints from doctors about the lack of transparency on the platform regarding which doctors were paying the startup and which were not, Ms Ding said the company will set up "more stringent processes" to address the issue.

"As a young startup, we have been so excited about putting information about healthcare for our patients that we have skipped a few steps. Part of the vetting process now is to engage all bodies, stakeholders and patients in the process," she said.

DoctorxDentist earns revenue from creating content with medical practitioners and brands, which it publishes on its website. The content is meant to be optimised for search engines, so consumers can find it easily through Google. The startup's subscription plans for such search-optimisation services range from S$3,000 to S$5,500 per month, with users locked in for at least six months, sources told BT.

Advertisements and fee payments to third-party platforms are sensitive issues in the medical industry. Medical practitioners are required to abide by strict guidelines under the SMC's ethical code and the Private Hospitals & Medical Clinics (PHMC) (Advertisement) Regulations.

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