Patient Review Policy

Who can write a review

You can review a doctor, hospital, clinic, AYUSH centre or diagnostic lab on BioTB if:

• you consulted that provider yourself, or you are a parent, guardian or carer who accompanied the patient;
• the visit was within the past 12 months, so the review reflects how the provider practises now;
• you can upload a document from that visit, as described in the next section;
• you are at least 18 years old, or a parent or guardian is submitting on behalf of a child;
• you have no personal or professional connection to the provider that would make the review a conflict of interest.

Providers, their staff and their relatives may not review themselves, their colleagues or their competitors. One review per patient per provider is allowed; if you return for further treatment, you can update your existing review.

Prescription and bill verification

With your review, you upload one document from the visit: a prescription, an OPD consultation receipt, a bill or a discharge summary. Automated processing reads only the details needed to confirm the consultation, namely the doctor's name, the clinic or hospital letterhead or stamp, the visit date and, where relevant, whether the document is consistent with the reason for the visit you describe. For example, if you review a cardiologist at a Lucknow hospital, we check that the document names that doctor and that hospital and falls within the review window.

• Personal identifiers on the document, such as identity numbers, home address and phone number, are masked and never shown publicly.
• The document itself is never published and never sent to the provider.
• A document that has already been used to verify another review is not accepted.
• Where automated checks are inconclusive, a trained member of our moderation team checks the document under restricted access.

The full process is described in our verification methodology, and how uploaded documents are stored, masked and deleted is set out in our privacy policy for patient and prescription data. Please do not upload test reports, scans or anything beyond the one document needed.

What a good review contains

The most useful reviews describe your own experience in specific, factual terms. We welcome:

• whether the doctor listened, explained the diagnosis and options clearly, and answered your questions;
• waiting time, how the appointment was arranged, and whether OPD timings matched what was published;
• whether fees and charges were explained in advance;
• cleanliness, accessibility and how front-desk and nursing staff treated you;
• critical experiences, stated honestly and without abuse. A negative review is as welcome as a positive one.

Reviews are a patient's experience, not a clinical judgement. A review can say that you did not feel your concerns were taken seriously; it should not claim, without basis, that a doctor made a wrong diagnosis.

What is not allowed

We do not publish reviews, or parts of reviews, that contain:

• personal data of anyone, including other patients, staff names that are not public, phone numbers or addresses;
• details of another person's health without their consent;
• abuse, threats, hate speech, or remarks about caste, religion, gender, disability or other personal characteristics;
• allegations of criminal conduct, which belong with the police or the appropriate authority, not in a review;
• content about a different provider, or a visit the uploaded document does not support;
• advertising, links, promotion of another provider, or requests for patients to contact you privately;
• medical advice to other readers, such as recommending that people stop a medicine;
• text copied from elsewhere, or written by a tool on the reviewer's behalf without reflecting their own experience.

How reviews are moderated

Every review goes through the same steps, whoever the provider is and whatever the rating:

1. Verification: the uploaded document is checked against the provider and visit date.
2. Content check: the text is checked against the rules above. Personal data and abusive phrases may be removed from an otherwise acceptable review, and we tell you if we do.
3. Publication or decision: the review is published, or you are told why it was not and how to fix it.

Moderators do not edit the meaning, tone or rating of a review, and they do not take a provider's commercial relationship with BioTB into account. Our editorial independence policy forbids removing or hiding reviews in exchange for payment.

Provider right of reply

The doctor or facility reviewed may post one public reply to each review. Replies follow the same content rules as reviews and, in addition, must not:

• confirm or disclose any clinical detail about the patient, even if the patient mentioned it, because that would breach patient confidentiality;
• attempt to identify the reviewer;
• offer the reviewer anything in exchange for changing or removing the review.

A good reply acknowledges the experience, explains any relevant change, such as new OPD hours, and gives a route to resolve the concern directly with the hospital.

Disputes and removal

A provider who believes a review breaks this policy, for example because it describes a different doctor or includes a staff member's personal details, can ask us to look again by writing to clinical-editorial@biotb.com with the review link and the reason. We re-check the review against this policy and the original verification. A review is removed or edited only if it breaks the policy.

Disagreeing with a review is not a reason to remove it, and we do not remove verified reviews because a provider dislikes them. Reviewers are told if their review is challenged and can respond. If either side is not satisfied with the outcome, they can escalate through our grievance redressal process, which follows the timelines required under the IT Rules 2021.

Reviewers can remove their own review at any time. Errors of fact on the provider's profile itself, as opposed to a review, are handled under our corrections policy.

No incentives or paid reviews

BioTB does not pay for reviews, and providers may not offer patients anything in return for a review, including discounts, free follow-ups, gifts, cash or priority appointments. Providers may ask patients in general terms to share their experience on BioTB, but may not ask only satisfied patients, write or edit reviews for them, or submit reviews from the clinic's devices.

If we find that reviews were incentivised, solicited selectively or written by the provider, we remove them and may add a notice to the provider's profile explaining that reviews were removed for breaking this policy.

How reviews do and do not affect the TrustScore™

Ratings from prescription-verified reviews are shown alongside a provider's profile so you can read other patients' experiences. They are not an input to the TrustScore™.

The TrustScore™ is computed from six verified profile signals: credentials and training, experience and seniority, hospital standing, practice depth, access and transparency, and profile completeness. The formula and weights are published on the TrustScore™ ranking index. Keeping reviews out of the score means a ranking cannot be moved by a burst of positive reviews from one clinic, or by a coordinated campaign of negative ones.

Reviewer privacy

• You choose a display name, or initials, for your published review. Your full name, phone number and email are never shown.
• Your uploaded document is used only to verify your review, and is never shown publicly or shared with the provider.
• Stating the condition you were treated for is optional. Leave it out if you prefer.
• You can ask for your review and its verification record to be erased by writing to privacy@biotb.com.

Your rights over this data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 are explained in full in our privacy policy.

Frequently asked questions