Methodology
How we rank clinics
Our trust score, where the reviews come from, what we filter out, and what our data cannot tell you.
Where the reviews come from
We aggregate 507 472 patient reviews from five sources: Babitalk (362 465), Google (51 276), Modoodoc (50 825), Gangnam Unni (42 685) and Naver Place (221). Babitalk and Gangnam Unni are where Korean patients actually write detailed procedure reviews; Google provides a broader, harder-to-manipulate cross-check.
What we filter out
Korean clinic marketing leans heavily on incentivised reviews — posts written in exchange for a discount, a free treatment, or a direct payment. We detect and exclude promotional and viral-marketing posts using patterns in phrasing, posting behaviour and campaign markers, and we flag clinics whose review profile looks manipulated. No filter is perfect; ours removes the obvious and systematic cases, not every single one.
How the trust score works
The score combines the volume of genuine reviews after filtering, their consistency over time, HIRA verification status, and how much of the clinic's review profile survives our ad filter. A clinic with a hundred consistent genuine reviews scores above one with a thousand reviews that are mostly promotional. The score is a summary, not a verdict — it is a starting point for reading the actual reviews, not a substitute for it.
HIRA verification
We cross-check clinics against records from HIRA, Korea's Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, which confirms a facility is a registered medical institution. 3 595 clinics in our database currently carry that verification. Absence of the badge means we could not match the record, which is not the same as the clinic being unlicensed.
Where our price data comes from
Published prices are real discounted transaction prices from Babitalk, Korea's clinic booking app — what Korean patients actually pay, not advertised list prices. We publish the median with the 25th and 75th percentiles and the sample size, so you can see how wide the spread is. We currently have this data for cosmetic procedures only; where we do not have it, we say so rather than estimating.
What this data cannot tell you
Review aggregates measure reported patient experience, not clinical outcomes. They cannot tell you a surgeon's complication rate, whether a technique suits your anatomy, or whether a procedure is medically advisable for you. Low review volume often means a clinic is small or new, not that it is bad. Treat everything here as a way to shortlist and to arrive informed — then have the medical conversation with a doctor.
How often it updates
Review and clinic data is refreshed on a recurring schedule; this page reflects the database as of 2026-08-21. Advertising has no effect on any of the above.