I know where my primary care physician (and the two previous ones) attended medical school, because it was in their profiles. None of the medical schools was any of the recognized “top” names in the US, since that was not among my selection criteria.
You were interested and looked.
Most people go on their insurance network, find someone close, and start dialing, and hoping someone is taking appointments.
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I look at the reviews because I need a certain personality type, but I don’t look at the medical school.
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Take this for what it is worth, but a medical professional I know once quipped that chosing your doctor based on which medical school they attended would be like choosing which movie to watch based on which acting school the lead attended. That always stuck with me.
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Out of curiosity, nothing more. Current primary care physician attended a Caribbean medical school.
Now you can look at profiles on the web to get an idea if the physician’s medical interests are a better match for what you might encounter. At least that is what I was looking at the profiles for.
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If my child needed to have surgery, and I found out the surgeon went to Johns Hopkins, I would feel relieved. If I found out the surgeon went to a Caribbean medical school, I would have a panic attack. But maybe that is just me.
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I choose my physicians based on personal recommendations, and an initial consultation. Nothing to do with where they went to medical school…at.all.
And there are some places where you don’t get to pick anyway. The emergency room? You get who you get? Having surgery that requires anesthesia…you don’t get to choose the anesthesiologist.
You are all forgetting some of the very competent DOs out there! Don’t forget them when you are considering your doctors.
I will say…my ophthalmology practice only hires folks who have done fellowships at top programs. But this has nothing to do with undergrad. At.all.
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I dunno. My kid had a surgery at the age of 3 months old. Doc was from an Indian medical school. Came extremely highly recommended and the surgery went really well. I’d probably lean on the recommendations the doc has versus the paper on the wall.
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Same here. But now I can actually look because I am curious since I have a premed kid lol
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I’ve had several surgeries (planned and emergency), so have my kids (planned and emergency), I have no idea where any of the surgeons went to med school, last one was in England so have no clue. When it comes to finding doctors, I prefer references from people I know.
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Does JHU teach medical students in a way that causes them to have steadier hands than students in other medical schools?
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I have a friend with early-stage cancer who visited with multiple oncologists – including a team at Johns Hopkins Medicine – to hear what each has to say. The treatment plans and prognosis varied widely. He went with the JHU team and acknowledged that their reputation gave him confidence despite a much higher out-of-pocket expense. He has been in the clear for nearly two years now.
Would the outcome have been the same with a random local oncologist? Perhaps. But when it comes to life and death, and when you can afford it, would you not pick the option that gives you seemingly the best odds to survive? The surgeon may or may not have steadier hands, but their judgement, knowledge and experience place them at the prominent hospital.
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ehhhh - I’ll disagree. I had 5 referrals, 4 of which were Vandy.
All four tell you different things. One was a conduit to a Phase 3 drug trial - the only hospital in TN but there were many in NC and SC.
Guess what - they all say different things. One wanted to do a “balloon” in between the tumor and edge of my prostate so they didn’t accidentally let it get outside. The other said with a tumor like mine (where it was) - hell no. I saw two surgeons too - they were similar except one said, 97% of people would have surgery and I should whereas his department head noted - you should have surgery because I’m really good (that’s why I’m the head of the department) but I would not say 97% of people would get surgery and the #s show surgery and radiation have equal life expectancies.
Medicine is as much an art as it is science. It’s often trial and error - with various steps - try A, if it doesn’t work, try B.
My co worker is at MSK in NYC - and they’ve tried things. She’s had chemo and more on whatever her cancer is. She just had a blood test after 6 months of being clear and isn’t. Now they have to do something where they take her blood, remove it, do something to it and put it back. It was unexpected.
That going to JHU gave the patient more confidence it’s fine. They have to make the best decision for them. Are the JHU doctors better than say at another hospital? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the care is the same.
In the end, patients get to choose. Your person did and the extra money was worth it and he’s been cancer free. But he might have been anywhere. One can’t say - just because he is, JHU is better.
But he is better (which is great), no doubt happy with his decision and what else matters? Really nothing. I got multiple opinions (even from Vandy doctors - they have to give you permission as they only want you to get from one) - and I think that’s the most important thing - talk to enough people that you will be comfortable with whoever you see.
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But did the JHU physicians attend medical school at JHU or other “top” medical schools?
If two surgeons are at the same prominent hospital, would it then matter which medical schools they attended?
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I’m glad your friend had a good outcome and that’s what is important.
That doesn’t mean his whole team was educated at JHU. Memorial Sloan Kettering, Dana Farber, MD Andersen etc have excellent reputations for what they do. But it doesn’t mean the whole care team comes from elite undergrad or medical schools.
Look at where your doctors did their fellowships. IMHO that is more important by far than where they did their undergrad degree.
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I think we’ve gone from - do top medical schools prefer prestigious undergrads to does it matter where you went to med school?
Now adding Fellowships - I would again argue, why does it matter?
To some it might, such as @yikkblue friend who wanted that top name. Others said the personality or as @ucbalumnus said a match for what they might encounter.
And then others, such as yourself, said a recommendation and comfort after an initial consultation were how you choose a physician.
I suppose there are many variables and everyone is different and might desire different things. At the same time, and my better half/daughter are going through this in Colorado right now, it’s mainly - who is on the insurance and of those, who is taking new patients (and without a year long wait). That’s who is likely to win - at least for a Primary Care doctor. For one, she knows few there and secondly, so far, they can’t find someone with a reasonable wait - so by the time they do, there may not be a choice to be made as opposed to it being made for her.
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I worked in healthcare for many decades. We had this conversation at dinner just the other day,and especially those of us in healthcare are going to likely get recommendations for referrals from colleagues, associates, etc. Just because I tend to be curious, I’m likely to read up on the backgrounds of the providers that are recommended by colleagues. But I won’t make my decision necessarily based on just that. I’ll look at their background, reviews, recommendations from colleagues, I’ll even look to see if they have published in the field. But where they went to undergrad is likely going to be nothing more than idle curiosity.
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I feel quite fortunate that my cancer was treated at one of the best hospitals in the country, and I would guess the world by extension, for my type of cancer (which just happened to be affiliated with the ER that discovered my cancer, which was around the corner from the urgent care that recommended I go to the ER).
My actual lead oncologist got his medical degree from Université Saint-Joseph Faculté de Médecine in Beirut (I had to look it up just now, I had not before). He interned at Staten Island University Hospital in New York, then did a fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
Sounds fine to me, but again I had never looked up his educational qualifications. I did know he was a very experienced doctor in my type of cancer, at one of the best hospitals for my type of cancer. That seemed adequate to me.
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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: T20 med school prefers prestige undergrad?