Does Misolist rate or rank clinics by quality?

No. We rank only by how much organic discussion exists, and we never assign a rating. Any “signal” is a keyword match linking to a real post you can read yourself.

Do you remove negative reviews?

Never. Bad experiences are the whole point — they’re the reviews that can’t be bought. We flag promotional and likely-planted posts, but genuine complaints always stay published.

Can clinics pay to change what appears?

No. We take no money from clinics, accept no submissions, and every data point links to an independent public source.

Red flags: how to tell a trustworthy Korean clinic review from a planted one

Choosing a surgeon abroad means reading reviews you can’t fully trust. Korea’s review apps are pay-to-play, glowing posts are easy to buy, and the worst outcomes are the least likely to be posted. This guide lists the red flags worth checking on any clinic — and how we surface each one automatically so you don’t have to take anyone’s word for it.

1. Disclosed discounts and sponsorships

The clearest signal is a reviewer admitting the incentive: “I received a discount in exchange for this honest review,” “[NOT sponsored]” (often protesting too much), or an outright promo with pricing and a booking link. These aren’t automatically dishonest, but a paid review is an ad with useful details, not an endorsement. We tag them discloses discounted/paid review and move them out of the default view.

2. Single-purpose accounts

An account whose entire history is one long, superlative-filled post about a single clinic fits the astroturf pattern. We flag posts from authors who appear exactly once in our whole index, praising one clinic — while deliberately never flagging one-off complaints, because a burner account warning others is normal and valuable.

3. Revision talk that points the wrong way

“Revision” is ambiguous: a clinic known for fixing others’ work is a good sign; a clinic whose own patients need revisions is a bad one. We only count revision as a caution signal when the wording implies a result needed fixing (“had to get it redone,” “to fix the damage”), not when someone simply chose a revision specialist. Read the source either way.

4. Complication and legal clusters

Individual bad outcomes happen anywhere. A concentration of complication mentions (infection, nerve damage, asymmetry, breathing problems) or any legal/malpractice discussion is worth taking seriously. On every clinic card we show these counts as “negative space,” and you can sort the whole directory by most cautionary to see where it clusters.

5. Coordinated bursts

Several near-identical, uniformly positive first-person reviews of one clinic within a short window is a classic planted-review pattern. Any one might be genuine; the cluster is the tell. We show a pattern notice when we detect it.

6. Marketing voice and factory-clinic warnings

Brochure language (“a beacon of excellence”) rarely comes from real patients. And when threads call a clinic a “factory,” raise proxy or ghost surgery, or ask “was it even the doctor I consulted?” — read those in full before you book. See our guide on ghost doctors.

How to use all of this

Start with the negative and neutral reviews — they’re harder to fake.
Weight timestamps and posting history over star ratings.
Open the original thread for every quote; if a claim has no source, discard it.
Cross-check any agency or app recommendation against organic discussion.

FAQ

Does Misolist rate or rank clinics by quality?: No. We rank only by how much organic discussion exists, and we never assign a rating. Any “signal” is a keyword match linking to a real post you can read yourself.
Do you remove negative reviews?: Never. Bad experiences are the whole point — they’re the reviews that can’t be bought. We flag promotional and likely-planted posts, but genuine complaints always stay published.
Can clinics pay to change what appears?: No. We take no money from clinics, accept no submissions, and every data point links to an independent public source.