U.S. mothers' behaviors and preferences when choosing physicians for their families: Assisting "Chief Medical Officers".

We performed an online study of 320 U.S. mothers to determine how this group, generally regarded as the "Chief Medical Officers" of their families, find physicians for their families. We also aimed to uncover mothers' information preferences with the goal of helping health care systems improve the content they offer. Mothers responded how they chose their last family medicine physician, and the level of importance they placed on various types of provider information when making that decision. Mothers rated providers' communication style as the most important characteristic. Interpersonal referrals were the most commonly cited source of information. Mothers also rated being able to extract personality characteristics and feelings of relatability from a provider's online biography as important in selecting a provider.