This document describes the development of DR-FINDR, a tool to help users find doctors. It discusses the challenges patients face in finding doctors and outlines DR-FINDR's approach, which brings together various information like recommendations, costs, experience and malpractice to provide a more comprehensive view and ranking of doctors. It also presents some insights from initial analyses and the need for a better predictive model.

1. DR-FINDR
Lindsay M. Pettingill
Insight Data Science

2. THE PROBLEM
Finding a doctor is hard- whether you’re in a new
city or shopping doctors to perform the surgery you
need
lindsay m pettingill

3. WHAT WOULD MAKETHIS
EASIER?
lindsay m pettingill

4. Recommendations Cost
Conflicts of interest?Experience
!
Any
Malpractice?
WHAT WOULD MAKETHIS
EASIER?
lindsay m pettingill

5. DR-FINDR
• dr-findr brings together a host of
information to help you find the
doctor you need… and avoid the
ones you don't.
lindsay m pettingill

6. RANKING DOCTORS
• I want to provide a more comprehensive view of
doctors
• Rating= +/-cost differential + # procedures
performed+/- (yelp/+(yelp/5* #yelp reviews)) -
malpractice - pharma
• Components are all standardized values (value-
mean)/mean, adjusted to deciles
lindsay m pettingill

7. SOME INSIGHTS
-.0008 -.0006 -.0004 -.0002 0 .0002
Difference
bedside
help
life
talk
time
reception
cost
staff
emergency
money
wait
office
lindsay m pettingill
People who write
negative reviews are
more likely to use the
words “office”,“wait,”
and “staff”…
It’s unclear what
implications these
words have for quality,
or perceptions of it.

8. A BETTER MODEL
selection bias more complete picture
lindsay m pettingill
0.2.4.6
Density
1 2 3 4 5
Yelp Rating
Kernel density estimate
0.01.02.03.04.05
Density
-20 -10 0 10 20 30
dr-finder Rating
Kernel density estimate

9. THANKYOU!
• I’m Finishing up a PhD in Government at
Georgetown. My dissertation looks at the impact of
immigration on political attitudes in contemporary
Germany. Bowdoin 2002 grad, Go U Bears!
• I leverage unique sources of data— millions of
phone calls to city service lines, pirate attacks, bomb
damage to cities in World War II— to understand
who we are and how we act.
• I am an avid biker, boulderer, and surfer
• (I also love the Oxford Comma)
lindsay m pettingill