口碑行銷無論是在實務上或在學術界中都越發蓬勃，卻鮮少有學者結合口碑與醫療加以論述，更遑論實務上的驗證。有鑑於此，本研究以初探方式探究口碑對於病患選擇醫師之影響與關聯，並了解病患是否對於充斥於周遭之資訊來源加以重視，以及病患選擇醫師時在意什麼，期望能藉此開創台灣醫療口碑的研究，並進而應用於醫療產業，讓醫療人員更了解民眾的需求與就醫行為。
本研究以問卷調查法進行研究，問卷題目包含病患是否有主動搜尋口碑、從何處得知醫師資訊，以及最重視哪種資訊來源。研究人員在台北醫學院附設醫院內科部門診候診區發放問卷，共回收235份有效問卷。結論是口碑對病患選擇醫師是重要的，有超過一半的人是因為口碑（家人推薦、朋友推薦、醫師推薦）而選擇就診醫師，有超過七成的人認為口碑（家人推薦、朋友推薦、醫師推薦）是重要的，而女性較男性會主動搜尋口碑，認為選擇醫師這項決定愈重要的受試者也愈會主動搜尋口碑。最後，病患最在意的醫師評價為醫師態度、醫術和醫德。

Word-of-mouth marketing is getting more and more popular recently both in academy and in practice. However, few researchers study word-of-mouth processes in medical service, and, of course, no medicine provider put word-of-mouth marketing into practice. In 21st century, more and more people see medical services as a promising industry due to global aging population and high biotechnology development. Hence, understanding word-of-mouth process among patients in medical services could be interesting and useful. This study would find out word-of-mouth effects on patients when choosing doctors, understand how patients look for doctor information and which information source is important to them, and reveal what patients care about their doctors. As a pioneer, this study would like to induce medical word-of-moth researches in Taiwan and hope to improve word-of-mouth marketing in medical services.
We designed a questionnaire based on how patients choosing doctors, including questions regarding information search, importance of different information sources and medical service decision, and respondents’ demographics. We released 235 questionnaires within a week to internal medicine department of Taipei Medical University Hospital. More than half of the respondents see doctors due to others’ recommendations（referral of family, friends and professionals）. Women are more likely to seek word-of-mouth information than men; and respondents who think choosing doctors is important tend to seek word-of-mouth information. Further, patients focus on “doctor’s behavior”, “doctor’s skills”, and “doctor’s ethic”.

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