U.S. News & World Report announced Wednesday a five-year extension to its partnership with Doximity, a social network for clinicians.
Through the partnership, U.S. News provides a free online directory of more than 800,000 physicians to consumers. Doximity is also the exclusive provider of the online survey of board-certified physicians that U.S. News incorporates into its Best Hospitals and Best Children's Hospitals methodologies.
"Consumers face complex decisions in managing their healthcare," Ben Harder, the publication's chief of health analysis, said in a statement. "Each of our services, including our long-standing Best Hospitals rankings, aims to help guide patients through the tough choices they face. Doximity has one of the richest data sets in the industry, which doctors themselves keep current, enabling us to better assist patients when it comes to finding and selecting their doctors."