Top Doctors 2010: The List: Methodology


Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is 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 an M.D., 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 in paperback guides, national and regional magazine “Top Doctors” features, and online directories.

Doctors do not and cannot pay to be selected and profiled as Castle Connolly Top Doctors.

Physicians selected for inclusion in this 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.

This year, in conjunction with Philadelphia magazine, Castle Connolly additionally opened up the nomination survey process to all licensed physicians in the magazine’s markets through a special online site. With the support of the marketing staff at all the respective Pennsylvania and New Jersey hospitals in the Philadelphia metro area, the response was overwhelming, with well over 13,000 nominations cast. This added process enabled Castle Connolly to expand the Top Doctors feature this year to 600 outstanding physicians, nearly double that of past years. For a thorough explanation of the selection process, go to phillymag.com/tdselection.