Rules for posting a review

A review of a doctor is read by people who are deciding, right now, who to go to. That is why a moderator reads every review before it is published — and why we ask you to write in a way that actually helps. Below: what makes a review useful, and what will not get through.

Who can write a review

A review is written by the person who was at the appointment. You need an account with a confirmed email — we have no anonymous walk-in reviews. But the doctor will not see your name: a review is signed «First name L.» or with a pen name you choose.

Were you there with your child, or accompanying a relative? Write about that visit in your own name.

Age 16 and over. For anyone younger, a legal guardian writes.
One patient, one review per doctor. Changed your mind? Write to us at info@medaro.am: there is no edit button on the site yet, and an edited review goes through the check again.
No more than three reviews from one account per 30 days. Enough for an honest patient, not enough for a review farm.
A doctor cannot rate themselves or their colleagues. We reject such reviews.
You can review any published doctor — including one whose profile was collected from a clinic website and not yet confirmed by the doctor.

What makes a review useful

«Everything was fine» helps nobody. Specifics help: what you came in with, how the appointment went, how long you waited, what the doctor explained and what they did not.

The form will ask for three ratings — attitude and attentiveness, explanation and outcome, how the appointment was organised. And the minimum: 150 characters of text, the date of the visit, and the clinic where it happened.

Write about this visit and this doctor — not about the clinic in general, and not about medicine in general.
Add details that are hard to invent: how long you sat in the queue, what the doctor asked you, what happened in the room.
Praise and criticise freely. Criticism written within the rules is published just as calmly as praise: we reject wording, not opinions.
If the clinic handed you a card with a visit code after your appointment, enter the code and your review gets the «verified visit» mark. Without a code the review is published all the same, just without the mark.

Health: where the line runs

A review is about how you were treated as a person, not about who is right in medicine. Reviews cannot settle whether a diagnosis was correct, and trying to settle it there hurts you and other readers alike.

Do not write about other people's diagnoses or medical histories — only about yourself and your own visit.
Do not advise readers on treatment and do not discuss medicines or dosages: what worked for you may harm someone else.
Allowed: «I was prescribed a treatment, it did not help, I changed doctors.» Not allowed: «Don't listen to him, take this instead.»
Believe you were harmed? That goes to the Ministry of Health or to court; in a review you may say that you have filed a complaint.

And a general reminder: the portal is a navigator, not a doctor. Neither reviews nor our articles replace an in-person consultation.

What we will not publish

A sharp, emotional, angry review is fine. But there are lines beyond which the text is rejected:

Insults and attacks on the person. Allowed: «the doctor was abrupt, kept interrupting and answered none of my questions.» Not allowed: «not a doctor but a butcher, people like that should be thrown out of the profession.»
Accusations of a crime. Guilt is established by a court, not by a review.
Other people's personal and medical data: names of other patients, staff phone numbers, photos of third parties.
Advertising: links, promo codes, «go to clinic N instead».
Reviews that are not about an appointment: rumours, «I wasn't there myself, but people say», general musings about medicine.
Reviews written by doctors about competitors or about themselves.
Manipulation: bursts of reviews about one doctor, identical texts from different «patients». We do not publish such a batch and investigate it as a whole.

What happens after you submit

Every review is read by a human before publication, without exception. It usually takes 24 to 72 hours.

An edited review goes back for checking like a new one. That applies to the text and to the ratings.

Published — the review appears on the doctor's or clinic's page and starts counting towards the rating.
Rejected — we email the reason to your account address. Almost always the text can be fixed: send a new version in reply to that email — there is no edit button on the site yet.
In moderation — that is how the review is marked in your account until a moderator has read it. Until then nobody but you can see it.

What the doctor can do with your review

Almost nothing, and that is deliberate. The doctor does not see the review before publication and cannot approve, hide or delete it. Reviews are not deleted for money: there is no «reputation cleaning» service here.

One public reply under the review — it goes through the same moderation as reviews do.
A complaint to the moderator, if the doctor believes the visit never happened or the review breaks the rules. The doctor has no «dispute» button, and a complaint changes nothing by itself: the review stays on the page and in the rating.
The decision on a review is made by a moderator under these rules, not by the doctor.
The doctor will not learn who you are: they see only your pen name. The «patient — doctor — date» link is closed and is handed over only on a lawful demand, never at the request of a doctor or a clinic.

Your rights as the author

The review stays yours after publication too.

All your reviews and their status are visible in your account, under «My reviews».
Change or delete your review. There are no buttons for this on the site yet — write to info@medaro.am from your account address. You owe nobody an explanation.
Get a copy of your data and delete your account — also by writing to info@medaro.am.
When an account is deleted the reviews do not vanish, they are anonymised: the text remains, the link to you does not.

If you disagree with a decision

A moderator is a human being, and humans make mistakes. If your review was rejected and you believe it broke no rules, reply to the rejection email and explain why. The decision will be reviewed again.

Rejected over wording? It is usually faster to fix the text and send a new version in reply to the email.
See someone else’s review with insults or signs of manipulation — write to info@medaro.am with a link to the page.
An error on a doctor’s or clinic’s page — the «Spotted an error? Let us know» button on that page.