PITTSBURGH, March 25, 1999 — More than 200 physicians in 35 specialty areas from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and hospitals across University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are listed among The Best Doctors in America, 1999, twice as many as any other hospital or health system in western Pennsylvania.
The current listing of The Best Doctors in America ® is the result of the fourth survey undertaken by publishers Woodward/White, Inc. of Aiken, S.C. According to Woodward/White, their objective is to identify the best-trained, most experienced and most skilled specialists in the United States, regardless of where they practice.
To compile the current database, more than 30,000 doctors throughout the United States were asked to rate the clinical abilities of other doctors in their areas of specialization. Only those physicians who earned the consensus support of their peers were included.
Specialties in which UPMC physicians were named include: allergy and immunology, anesthesiology, cardiovascular disease, clinical pharmacology, colon and rectal surgery, dermatology, endocrinology, family medicine, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, hand surgery, infectious disease, internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology, nephrology, neurological surgery, neurology, nuclear medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, otolaryngology, pathology, pediatric specialist, physical medicine and rehabilitation, plastic surgery, psychiatry, pulmonary and critical care medicine, radiation oncology, radiology, rheumatology, surgery, surgical oncology, thoracic surgery and urology.
According to Woodward/White, surveys are conducted bi-annually. For each survey, it contacts every physician 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?" Every doctor has the opportunity to 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 evaluation of their peers.
For more information about University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, please access http://www.upmc.com. For more information about The Best Doctors in America, 1999 access their web site at http://www.bestdoctors.com.