How do I find the best doctor in a given specialty?

April 24, 2007 7:47 AM

How can I fine the best doctor in a given specialty? In this case, I need to find the best eye doctor I can possibly find.

My mom had an Ischemic CRVO and lost her vision in her left eye. She's relatively young (late 50s) so this was devastating enough.

Recently, we found out that my Dad has Fuch's Corneal Dystrophy and Glaucoma, likely to lead to the loss of his vision. This is heartbreaking news, especially because my mom depends upon my dad to be "her eyes."

So, I need to make sure that they have the absolute best care that we can get for them. They are in Nebraska, but if we have to travel to find the most competent doctor, that's ok.

I have tried to do research online, but many web sites want you to pay for the full reports on doctors. I was just wondering if there were any other avenues I should explore. Thank you.

posted by Ostara to health & fitness (9 comments total)

I'd start at the Mayo Clinic and go from there. Expensive, but my experience with the Mayo in Scottsdale was wonderful.
posted by meerkatty at 7:54 AM on April 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

looks like there's a yahoo group you can join here . In general, other people with this disease are gonna be a great source.
Media-based "top doctors" less so, but you could check some of those--specifically in New York, or, closer to you, the mayo clinic.
posted by alkupe at 7:56 AM on April 24, 2007

US News ranks hospitals based on reputation with board-certified ophthalmologists, which seems like a reasonable criteria. Note that there is a major gap between the top three and the rest of the list.
posted by backupjesus at 8:09 AM on April 24, 2007

How rare are these conditions?

I have a really, really rare condition, and what I did was went to my university's medical library, did a journal search, and figured out who was working on the disease that way. There's one doctor in the country who is doing research on my condition, and I contacted him. He sounded pretty delighted to hear from me, since it's not easy to do research on a disease that's only been diagnosed in a few hundred people. I flew out to see him once, and then I got his advice on finding a good doctor closer to me. I think that will probably only work for very rare conditions, though.

Otherwise, the yahoo group is probably a great resource. You should also figure out if there's an association (like the American Heart Association, but probably much smaller) devoted to either of those conditions. They may have a list of doctors who specialize in the condition, and they probably also know about any clinical trials going on.
posted by craichead at 8:09 AM on April 24, 2007

Incidentally, I don't think you're looking for the best ophthalmologist, exactly. I think you're probably looking for two excellent ophthalmologists, each of whom has experience in one of your parents' conditions or in something closely related. And for that reason, you might want to concentrate on large hospitals, so that at least you will be able to consolidate the appointments and only make one trip.
posted by craichead at 8:12 AM on April 24, 2007

Take a look at PubMed. You can often find someone who has done research and published in a very specialized medical area. It's not the be all and end all but it could be a good starting point.
posted by Brussels at 12:56 PM on April 24, 2007

For somthing rare, I like craichead's idea. Find the closest medical schools to you (University of Nebraska and Creighton?) and find out who there has published items related to the condition in question.

Otherwise, for more run of the mill things, it is really difficult to do research and find a good doctor. The most reliable method really is to get a personal recommendation either from a friend who sees that doctor or from a doctor that refers to him or her. Magazines that publish articles like "Smallville's Best Doctors" are basically just polling doctors about their colleagues. Things like Health Grades are just aggregating data like med school, legal action, etc -- information that is incomplete at best and not sufficient for making a good decision.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:36 PM on April 24, 2007

Find someone in the specialty. Ask them who they would have operate on a loved one. If they are honest, they will name someone besides themselves.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 2:36 PM on April 24, 2007

I would also use PubMed to find who's currently doing research in the field. Try a search like this:

glaucoma "nebraska"[ad]

It looks like C.B. Toris has a lot of recent publications. Also, try Google Scholar, and look for the "cited by" tag to see how influential this researcher is.

Note, however, that this is a good tool for finding the most knowledgeable and up-to-date doctors, but not necessarily those who care the most about patients.
posted by wireless at 4:53 PM on April 25, 2007