The letter to me Friday read:

Dear Dr. Downey:

Congratulations! You have once again been recognized as a Patients’ Choice physician.

The Patients’ Choice honor is given to you as a reflection of your patients’ continued appreciation and praise for the quality of care and service you provide.

Every month, more than 200,000 patients across the U.S. provide online feedback about their doctor experiences. They rate various components of the care they receive, such as bedside manner, doctor-patient face time, follow-up care, ease of appointment setting, and courtesy of office staff. They also share their overall opinions.

Over the course of 2011, hundreds of thousands of patient reviews were written and shared. While physicians generally receive positive feedback from their patients, only a select few consistently receive rave reviews. Of those with high praise, only physicians like yourself – with near perfect scores – have been voted by their patients for this honor.

In fact, of the nation’s 720,000 active physicians, only 5 percent were accorded this honor by their patients in 2011.

You are, indeed, the Patients’ Choice; a physician so highly regarded by patients that they feel the need to talk to others about the positive influence of your work.

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Vitals.com, like Avvo.com, has a patient-driven rating system whose data is reviewed. A physician hungry for hits cannot simply write a check to jack his ratings. Many of these awards sites are cheesy with questionable methodologies. Vitals.com is not.