The Best Doctors in America®
SURVEY METHODOLOGY
The list of physicians in The Best Doctors in America® is compiled through
what is undoubtedly the largest peer-review based evaluation of the medical profession
ever undertaken. Woodward/White’s objective is to identify the best-trained,
most experienced and most skilled specialists in the United States, regardless of where
they practice. It is designed to be a current reference work – a picture of the
medical profession at a given moment – not a monument to reputations.
Survey Process
Woodward/White conducts its survey annually. For each survey, it contacts every
doctor on the current list and asks the same question: "If you or a loved one needed
a doctor in your specialty and you couldn’t treat them yourself, to whom would you
refer them?" At the highest level, every medical specialty is a community of a kind,
and doctors know each other across state and regional lines. This makes doctors uniquely
qualified to objectively judge each other’s clinical skill.
Every doctor has the opportunity to both comment (confidentially) on the other doctors
on the current list and to suggest additions to that list for further review. New names
are constantly added to the pool, each undergoing the same stringent and exhaustive
evaluation from their peers. Some new nominees receive consensus support, some do not. Woodward/White
contacts those nominees who do and asks them both to vote on other nominated doctors and
to make additional nominations. No name is ever removed from the list on the basis of a
single negative vote, nor is any name added on the basis of a single positive comment.
The result is a constant refinement of both the voting pool and the nominee pool. Each
time a poll is conducted, the list is sifted, refined, and improved – both by adding
the names of worthy doctors who might have been missed in previous polls and by removing
doctors who have retired, do not see patients, or for any other reason do not measure up
in the eyes of their peers. This process results in better representation and more solid
consensus. Plus, the broadness and depth of the voting pool help eliminate the biases and
cronyism that often mar smaller-scale surveys.
Since 1981, Woodward/White has produced eight editions of The Best Lawyers in
America® and four editions of The Best Doctors in America® using
this unique, peer-review methodology. In the process, it has developed special software to
correct for methodological biases: for example, by deleting and correcting for suspect
voting patterns, and by weighing votes according to the scores and other votes of the
voter.
NOMINATION PROCESS
In order to maintain consistency in our standards and the integrity of our listings, we
accept nominations only from currently listed physicians. Materials such as résumés,
curriculum vitae, articles, etc. are not considered in the decision making process. All
that is needed is a letter to Woodward/White from a listed physician(s) who believes the
nominee should be considered for inclusion. This nominee will then be added to a voting
pool for consideration by other doctors within the same specialty of medicine.
Why Best Doctors is Unique:
Unlike other "best" lists, a simple mail-in questionnaire is not used to
survey participants. Woodward/White employs a combination of high technology
polling and person-to-person phone interviewing in which doctors are asked to rate the
clinical skills of their peers. Specially developed software allows Woodward/White
to fax customized ballots to each of the doctors in the voting pool. These ballots change
daily as responses are returned and recorded. This process is supplemented with in-depth
phone interviews which allow editors to ask more detailed questions regarding a
physician’s practice and allows doctors to comment more openly and candidly.
While doctors are permitted to nominate physicians within their own hospitals or
medical practices, their votes for such colleagues are statistically weighted to count
less than votes for physicians from outside their hospital or practice group. This
adjustment minimizes the possibility that doctors will promote colleagues from their own
hospitals or communities over doctors with superior skill and experience from elsewhere.
Doctors who are nominated because of their membership in an informal "referral
loop" are subjected to the unbiased votes of scores of doctors not in the loop. In
addition, voting is not limited to just a particular metro-area. Physicians listed have
been reviewed by their peers throughout their region, not just their city or state.
All of the voting is strictly confidential. Thus, physicians who are polled are not
subject to the institutional, professional, or community pressure that often influence
individual referrals.
Doctors are not notified of their inclusion on the list until after the survey process
is completed. Unlike other "best" lists, doctors cannot pay to be listed.
This is the full-time job of Woodward/White. Unlike most surveys of the medical
profession which are done by part-time "stringers" on a fixed budget and tight
schedule, Woodward/White’s staff of 20 works year-round, at a cost of more
than $2 million annually, surveying and interviewing thousands of physicians to develop
and refine its lists.
Listings in Best Doctors are not based on outcome studies or mortality rates, which do
not account for the severity of the cases. The best doctors are often the ones who handle
the most difficult and life-threatening cases, cases that other doctors have refused or
have treated without success.
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