Patient Understanding of Health Care Practitioner Titles—A California Survey

BACKGROUND Physicians are concerned that patients are confused by the professional titles used by nonphysician practitioners. OBJECTIVE To assess how commonly used medical titles and specialty descriptors are understood by adult Californians in relation to the practitioner's actual training and qualifications. METHODS A 60-question multiple choice online survey was conducted on California adults aged 18 to 99 years. The survey was designed to yield a 3.0% margin of error. Given the demographic diversity of California, participants were sourced from multiple opt-in survey panels and balanced for age, income, gender/race/ethnic diversity, education, community type, geography, and political ideology. RESULTS A total of 1,033 subjects (24.6% response rate; 4,206 potential participants) met the inclusion criteria for the survey. Participants demonstrated significant confusion by the medical and specialty titles used by nonphysicians in California. Only 9% ( N = 91) of participants correctly matched a practitioner's level of training and qualifications with the medical or specialty titles provided in the survey. The understanding of medical titles also varied between age groups and across geographic locations in the state. Of the participants, 88% supported legislation to restrict the use “doctor” and “-ologist” terms to physicians only. CONCLUSION The results underscore the need for California to provide additional regulation and legislation regarding title transparency.