I think you make excellent points, and this is coming from me, the President of a company called Best Doctors. We’re responsible for creating some of these lists.

In medicine, in which thoughtful judgment is the key to success, I think a doctor’s reputation among his peers is the best way to get an idea of how good they are. And so that’s how we do our surveys.

Still, the issue in medical care isn’t your doctor’s reputation. Instead, it’s the extent to which he or she is able to spend time with you, think about your problems, and render good advice.

Very few people working in public or private insurers seem to understand this. It’s why you see these deeply misguided attempts to measure doctor quality like the ones you describe.

But I believe these attitudes are changing, and it’s because patients are getting fed up with a system that doesn’t let them really get what they want from their doctors. In this sense, think of popularity of these “top docs” issues as an expression of this growing consumer frustration.

Once there was a time when your doctor could truly be your guide through the health care system. Progress in the quality and cost of medical care will come from getting back to the fundamentals of medicine, not by trying to turn doctors into ciphers.

Cheers,

Evan Falchuk
President
Best Doctors, Inc.

Our Doctors are also aware of the feedback and spend quite a bit of time going through end of the month meetings on patient care and overall satisfaction.

Regards

Think about it this way: No one ever says, “I’m booking my next flight, and got a really great pilot!” No magazines have issues featuring “the best pilots in your city.” People just assume pilots have passed their tests, logged their hours, and will get the job done. They should start to think the same way about doctors.

There’s the additional argument about extraordinary cases, like the plane that went down in the Hudson. How many pilots could do what Capt. Sully did? But Sully makes the point himself, that situations like his have been rendered extremely rare due to a culture of safety in aviation that puts established protocols over pilot ego. This hasn’t happened in medicine.

I’ve been living on-and-off near Portland Oregon, which is terrific. The MDs I’ve met here all seem terrific too.

However, I’ve never seen a place where abject quackery is so normalized. Acupuncturists, reikian therapists, homeopaths, a Hogwarts-like college of naturopathy, self-described practitioners of herbal therapies, aura readers, yadda yadda yadda on every street corner and mini-mall–supported by a huge chunk of the population who think these “natural healers” are just the greatest thing since Lydia Pinkham went out of business.

Ask ’em why and (1) they’ll invariably tell you about how much nicer, kinder, more caring, sweet-as-sugar the naturopaths et al. are.

Well, of course they are. What else do they really have to offer?
________
(1) Once you get past the diatribe about how the MDs and DOs have all prostituted themselves and their arts to their corporate overlords in the insurance industry and Big Pharma.

The rankings may not make so much difference to me, but if that means they are more likely to have reviews online, and that will make a difference. I’ll read negative and positive reviews happily (I’m with the previous responder who wanted both positive and negative reviews)… I just want to be able to learn all about them before I go in for my first visit.

This may not be the best way to pick a doctor, but as Emmy said, there isn’t a great way to pick them out, so this one works for me.

Funny that this elicited such diverse responses. This was my second favorite part of this overall nice discussion on the medical hazards of social media (right after the suggestion that patients should be ranked!).

In general, I feel that the community should have a little more patience regarding just about everything. I argue that the system should be fixed so that morally-appropriate accommodations for emergencies and little old ladies do not result in regular disruptions for people like Cat and yield more frequent open slots for people like Emmy. However, it sounds like the people in Norway were ready to pay in time and treasure for that convenience, unlike the demand for McDonald’s medicine here.