Methodology

About the Data

All data is independently collected from public sources and may contain errors — report a correction. This rating is not medical advice, and ranking positions are not for sale.

What We Measure — and What We Don't

We score publicly verifiable factors: how transparent a clinic is about its team, services, and prices; what public review signals look like; which infrastructure and services are documented; how reachable the clinic is for English-speaking patients; and how visible it is in search and AI assistants.

We do not measure clinical quality. This index is not a medical recommendation, and a high score does not mean a clinic is "the best" or that treatment there is right for you. Always consult a qualified professional about medical decisions.

The Formula

Each clinic is scored in six categories. Within a category, criteria have fixed point values (tables below). A clinic's score in any rating profile is:

profile score = 100 × Σ(category% × weight) / Σ(weights) + red-flag penalty
clamped to 0…100, where category% = earned points / category maximum

Category weights are relative; scores are normalized to a 100-point scale. The default "Overall Transparency & Trust" profile uses the methodology's own category maxima (Informatietransparantie 20, Prijstransparantie 15, Reputatie en reviews 20, Medische infrastructuur 15, Communicatie en service 10, Zichtbaarheid in AI en zoekmachines 10) as weights.

Unknown data scores 0 points. When we cannot verify a fact, the clinic earns no points for it, and the item is listed on the clinic's page under "Data we could not verify" — explicitly not as a negative finding. Absence of evidence never earns points, and never triggers a red flag by itself.

Review Score Adjustment

Raw star ratings are misleading at low review counts, so the Google rating is adjusted with a Bayesian prior of 4 stars weighted as 25 reviews before mapping to points:

adjusted = (rating × reviews + 4 × 25) / (reviews + 25)

Example: a 5.0 rating from 3 reviews adjusts to 4.11, while a 4.8 from 500 reviews adjusts to 4.76 — volume matters.

Red Flags (Penalties)

Documented problems subtract points. Each flag has a severity set by the evidence; the total penalty is capped at -20 points. Flags require public evidence (cited on the clinic page) — we never apply a flag on suspicion alone. Some flags are auto-derived from verified negatives (e.g. "no prices published" → opaque pricing, low severity).

Rating Profiles

All profiles use the same underlying data — only the category weights, penalty multiplier, and eligibility rules differ. A clinic is excluded from a profile (shown as "not ranked") when the qualifying service is verifiably absent, or when we could not verify the data the profile depends on.

Independence Rules

• This rating is not a medical recommendation. It measures transparency and public signals, not treatment quality or outcomes.
• Ranking positions are not for sale. No clinic can pay to raise its score or position, directly or indirectly.
• Paid audits do not affect positions. We offer clinics an improvement audit; purchasing one (or declining one) has zero effect on scoring. Scores change only when the underlying public data changes.
• The rating updates when data changes. Re-checks, corrections, and methodology updates are logged in the changelog and in each clinic's change history.
• Errors are fixable by anyone. Every clinic page links to a correction form; verified corrections are applied with a public history entry.

Note on AI-visibility checks: quoted queries such as "best dentist Netherlands" are the fixed search phrases we test — they are patients' words, not our claims about any clinic.