As long as the evaluation and reporting is done properly and fairly, taking all factors and realities into account, and performed in the right context and from the proper perspective, rating physicians, and all other professions for that matter, is natural, necessary, and prudent. The healthcare consumers and purchasers of other professional services, like merchandizing customers, have the right to make the intelligent and informed choice and be appropriately protected.

Starting this March, WellPoint, an Indianapolis-based health insurer, has teamed up with Zagat, the internationally-acclaimed publisher of rating guides on restaurants, hotels, and travel destinations worldwide, to judge and rate physicians. WellPoint allows its 35 million insured to post online reviews of their doctors. After visiting the physician, the patient can log on to the website of WellPoint and "grade" the healthcare provider on a 4-point scale, including availability, communication, office environment, and trustworthiness. Following a ten patient-feedback, WellPoint compiles and analyzes the info and assigns a rating of the physician, or over-all score from 1 to 30. Much like rating a restaurant or hotel 1-star or 5-star. Physicians are now treated like products or commodities. Times have indeed changed.

Big cities like New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, etc. are now evaluating, "grading" and publishing the best hospitals, and the best specialists in the various medical and surgical fields, the evaluation made by watchdog companies like HealthGrades and Leap Frog, and surgical specialty organizations like The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

WellPoint is a trail blazer in this consumer-feedback based grading system, which is expected to open the gate to other health insurance companies and private and public advocate groups in the United States and other countries.

While this serious grading system will impact the practice, career and life of the professional, and has potential legal ramifications, consumer rights and protection take precedence. And rightly so. As a cardiac surgeon, I believe that a fair and just rating system will have a most beneficial effect, not only on healthcare consumers, but on the quality of medical practice of the individual physician, and, therefore, on the healthcare system of the country as a whole.

The caveat is, of course, all of us consumers, in general, must be fair, realistic, and as objective as we can be, when judging anyone, a neighbor, a professional or any fellow human being. In evaluating and rating your physician, wearing his white coat and walking in his shoes would be a good start. The judgment in this case would be more just.

And talking about judgment, the Bible has a poignant example: Had Pontius Pilate himself known Jesus Christ, the preacher of love and peace, up close and personal, and had walked barefooted, carrying the heavy cross to Calvary and worn the thorny crown as Jesus had, this Roman governor-procurator would probably have judged Jesus differently, and had not made his decision to crucify the Messiah based on what was politically "correct" at the time and simply washed his hands, to his own wife's dismay.

Most of the upper respiratory, gastro-intestinal, or skin, infections we get are due to bacteria or viruses on our dirty hands, previously contaminated by touching door knobs (especially in public washrooms), stair/escalator handrails, paper money or coins, and other objects which have been touched by hundreds, if not thousands, unclean hands. Of course, inhalation and ingestion are two other modes of bacterial or viral transmission.

But the rule is the same: The unwashed hands are generally considered dirty, bug-laden, contaminated, and the most frequent source of infection. This is why physicians wash their hands before examining each patient.

Contaminated hands (or even one finger) touching the face could transmit viruses and/or bacteria by inhalation and cause upper respiratory tract infection (URI), or, if handling food, lead to diarrhea or other GI infection.

It has been shown by numberless studies in university hospitals and research centers around the world that washing hands often cut down the infection rate by as much as 90 percent. Yes, that simple and easy hand-washing strategy (even without soap), before each meal, and in between, does work effectively in the prevention of the various common upper respiratory infections, like common cold or the flu, or gastrointestinal problems, etc., among us, especially among babies, children and the very elderly.

If one washes hands less than 8 times a day, from the time the person wakes up in the morning till he goes to bed at night (using the bathroom at least three times and eating at least 3 meals a day) then he/she is not maximally and optimally protected.

After reading this newspaper you are now holding (or touching the keyboard of the computer in the internet cafe), reading this article, isn't it time to wash your hands?