It’s mainly because of too much politicking:
What’s so bad about this sort of thing? After all, Who’s Who and its progeny operate a similar scam. I would argue, though, that by adopting the guidebook approach, Best Doctors (or Best Lawyers or Best Dentists) fails the public by making a false promise. The real problem at hand – how do you find a reliable professional whose services you very much need – can’t be solved as readily as picking a restaurant or health club. You can’t run a Zagat-style survey and get worthwhile results. Nor can you pay people to crash the car and then rate the product. The Best Doctors approach – asking other doctors to name the colleagues they trust enough to send a family member to – sounds like it ought to work. But it doesn’t.To begin with, the list is heavily influenced by backslapping, back-stabbing, and old-fashioned old-boyism. Powerful medical departments are too generously represented while oddball offices or people are gone with the wind. Even if that weren’t the case, however, the list would be mostly useless.
(via KidneyNotes)
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Las Vegas Life, a monthly magazine that details goings-on in that town for tourists and locals alike, has an annual “Best Docs of Vegas” issue. In my specialty, at least one of the “best” docs was driven out of town by so many malpractice cases that he could even get insured again in the United States–he moved out of the country.
Archie Silvestri, one of the greatest technical surgeons the world has ‘never known,’ didn’t make it to ‘Philadelphia Magazine’s’ list of ‘Best Doctors’ –ever.
Archie was a local Philadelphia legend-and was probably Albert Einstein Medical Center’s best ever surgeon-at a hospital known for its ‘cutters’ among medical students trying to ‘match’ the best place to train-in this town.
Archie never made mistakes, and could nail down a gallbladder-skin to skin- in about 11 minutes; when he wasn’t focused !!!
There are a million stories about Archie-not one is bad-even people jealous of him will tell you-he was the very best.
These lists reward people who are involved with organized medicine, and/or well known old-timers, nothing more. Someone active in a state or local medical society, or especially a specialty society, will get the mentions by other doctors that determine ranking on these lists.
I have a very large data set to draw from as I am a member of a specialist group of 70 partners. The ones who get picked for the local mag’s “Best Doctors” list are ALWAYS the ones who put in face time at the society meetings. There is very little correlation with how good they are at their jobs.
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