Reviews & Testimonials Policy

Reviews on TrustClinic come from two sources, and the source is always labelled on each review:

• Native TrustClinic reviews— submitted by patients directly on TrustClinic after creating an account. Marked “TrustClinic”.
• Aggregated third-party reviews — collected from public review platforms including Healthgrades, RealSelf, Yelp, Vitals, and Zocdoc. Each carries a visible source badge and, where possible, a link to the original review. We aggregate these to give patients a fuller picture of a surgeon’s reputation across the web.

We do not mix, edit, or paraphrase third-party reviews. We do not present aggregated reviews as if they originated on TrustClinic. We do not write reviews ourselves.

We apply the following verification standards. No standard is perfect; we explain the limits clearly so prospective patients can weigh the information appropriately.

• Native reviewsare tied to a registered email and an IP/device fingerprint, and screened automatically for duplicate, fake-pattern, and competitor-defamation signals. They are marked as “verified” only when the patient has confirmed the email and (where applicable) attached evidence of treatment.
• Third-party reviews reflect whatever verification the source platform applies. We do not re-verify them. Source platforms have their own policies — Healthgrades, RealSelf, Yelp, Vitals and Zocdoc each apply different standards.
• We do not claim that every review is from a confirmed patient. We display every review we have and let the source and verification badge speak for themselves.

Consistent with the FTC’s 2024 rule, we do not:

• Remove negative reviews because a surgeon asked us to.
• Reorder reviews to hide negative ones (default ordering is reverse-chronological).
• Offer surgeons the ability to “approve” reviews before publication.
• Sell “review management” services that filter or curate reviews.

We do remove reviews for the specific reasons listed in Section 5 (e.g. confirmed fakes, defamation, off-topic content, personal-data leaks).

Per our Acceptable Use Policy, surgeons and their staff may not:

• Write reviews of themselves or their own clinic.
• Have employees, family members, or other interested parties write reviews.
• Offer patients money, discounts, gifts, or any other consideration in exchange for posting a review or for the content of a review.
• Use AI to generate reviews.
• “Gate” reviews — that is, screen patients for positive sentiment before inviting them to post.

If we detect any of the above we will: remove the affected reviews, display a transparency notice on the surgeon’s profile, and for repeated or egregious violations suspend or terminate the surgeon’s account. We may also report suspected fake-review conduct to the FTC.

We remove reviews that:

• Have been demonstrated, through evidence, to be fake or incentivised.
• Were not written by an actual patient of the surgeon being reviewed.
• Contain defamatory, harassing, hateful, or sexually explicit content.
• Disclose personal information about a third party without consent (including other patients).
• Disclose information that violates HIPAA or other medical privacy laws when posted by the surgeon’s side.
• Are not about the surgeon being reviewed (off-topic, mistaken identity).
• Solicit business away from TrustClinic or contain promotional content.

We do notremove reviews for being negative, critical, unflattering, contradicted by the surgeon, or for “hurting business”. A surgeon’s disagreement with a review is not grounds for removal.

If a surgeon believes a review violates this policy, they may submit a dispute at trust@trustclinic.co with:

1. The URL or ID of the review.
2. The specific policy ground being invoked.
3. Supporting evidence (e.g. proof the reviewer is not a patient, screenshots showing competitor activity, etc.).

We review every dispute. We aim to respond within 10 business days. During review, the disputed review remains live; we do not hide reviews based on the existence of a dispute alone. We notify both parties of the outcome and reasoning.

For aggregated third-party reviews, our authority is limited. We can hide the review from TrustClinic on the same grounds above, but we cannot remove it from the source platform — you must dispute directly with Healthgrades, RealSelf, Yelp, etc.

Surgeons on a Premium or Elite plan may post a public response to any review on their profile. Responses must:

• Comply with HIPAA and state medical-privacy laws. Do not confirm or deny that the reviewer was a patient, do not disclose any specifics of their care, and do not infer or hint at clinical details.
• Be professional, respectful, and free of personal attacks.
• Not contain marketing or promotional material for other services.
• Not contain threats of legal action against the reviewer.

Responses violating these rules are removed. Repeated violations may result in the surgeon losing review-response privileges.

If you are a reviewer, you have the right to:

• Edit or delete a review you posted on TrustClinic at any time, from your account.
• Request anonymisation (we display first name + last initial by default).
• Request deletion of your review if you no longer wish it to appear, by emailing privacy@trustclinic.co.
• Report a retaliatory message from a surgeon to trust@trustclinic.co. Retaliation against reviewers is a serious violation of our policies.

Surgeon star ratings shown on TrustClinic are a simple average of all displayed reviews’ ratings, weighted equally and recalculated whenever reviews are added or removed. We do not apply weighting based on recency, source, plan tier, or any other factor.

We may update this policy as review standards and FTC guidance evolve. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Material changes are notified by email to active surgeons.

Questions about our reviews? Email trust@trustclinic.co.