Best Doctors List, Along With 56 Physician Consultants And Attending Physicians

The MEDVAMC, located in Houston, boasts 26 staff physicians on the Best Doctors list, along with 56 physician consultants and attending physicians. A list of the 26 MEDVAMC staff physicians selected as the best in their field for the year 2003 is below.

Best Doctors says that annually, as many as 2 million peer evaluations go into detailed profiles on the doctors in their database, sometimes as many as 200 individual evaluations on a single doctor. The company claims that it weighs, scores, and filters these evaluations to correct for biases. Unlike other referral services that simply list doctors affiliated with certain hospitals, or that depend on self-reporting, Best Doctors maintains that it asks those in a real position to know - other leading specialists.

Best Doctors says that it employs a combination of high-technology surveying methods and person-to-person phone interviews to encourage more complete and candid responses. The company claims that the broadness and depth of the voting pool help eliminate the biases that mar smaller-scale surveys and the distortion that results from minimal and/or indiscriminate participation from the medical community.

Best Doctors asserts it never takes compensation of any kind from doctors or hospitals in return for listing doctors in its database and in-depth surveying allows Best Doctors to develop detailed profiles of each of the doctors in its database (e.g., in-office language skills, special areas of research or experience. Additional information such as office hours, wait time for appointments, and bedside manner are available upon request). The company states all the doctors in their database are checked for licensing and certification requirements, and for any disqualifying disciplinary actions. --- portions of this article are courtesy Best Doctors, Inc.