Seattle magazine’s Top Doctors list was created in collaboration with Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., a health care research and information company founded in 1991 by a former medical-college board chairman and president to help guide consumers to America’s top doctors and top hospitals. Castle Connolly’s established survey and research process, under the direction of a medical doctor, involves tens of thousands of top doctors and the medical leadership of leading hospitals.
>> Castle Connolly’s physician-led team of researchers follows a rigorous screening process to select top doctors on both the national and regional levels. Using mail and telephone surveys and electronic ballots, they ask physicians and the medical leadership of leading hospitals to identify highly skilled, exceptional doctors. Careful screening of doctors’ educational and professional experience is essential before final selection is made among those physicians most highly regarded by their peers. The result: Castle Connolly identifies the top doctors in America and provides the consumer with detailed information about their education, training and special expertise through publications such as paperback guides, national and regional magazine “Top Doctors” features, and online directories.
>> This year, again in conjunction with Seattle magazine, Castle Connolly additionally opened up the nomination survey process to all licensed physicians in the region through a special online site. With the support of the magazine and marketing staffs at all of the respective hospitals in the Seattle metro area, Castle Connolly garnered 17,972 nominations. This added process enabled Castle Connolly to enhance its existing processes and arrive at the list of top doctors for this feature.
>> Several factors determine which names appear on the list, including the number of nominations a physician receives, the area of specialty, the number of practitioners in the specialty and geographic distribution. In addition to Castle Connolly’s review of state licensure, as an added measure, Seattle magazine staff verified at press time that all physicians listed are in good standing with the Washington State Department of Health. (To verify any provider on the list, go to doh.wa.gov and click on “Provider Credential Search.”) While our list is comprehensive, it is not exhaustive. Castle Connolly only includes physicians in specialties certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties. Additionally, this list is limited to those practitioners whom patients can generally select; emergency room and anesthesiology specialists are not included. In fact, many well-qualified providers are not included, but we are confident that those listed are among the best in their areas of specialty.
>> Physicians selected for inclusion in Seattle magazine’s “Top Doctors” feature may also appear as Regional Top Doctors online at castleconnolly.com, or in one of Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors guides, such as America’s Top Doctors or America’s Top Doctors for Cancer.
>> Doctors do not and cannot pay to be selected and profiled as Castle Connolly or Seattle magazine Top Doctors.
