<p>The study found that being board certified (versus not), female (versus male), or US (versus internationally) trained were associated with marginal differences in performance quality. There were no statistically significant differences associated with medical school rank, among other physician characteristics.</p>
<p>The fact that this isn’t common knowledge saddens me :(</p>
<p>And dstark, it isn’t required to be board certified to practice medicine. The requirement for an unrestricted license in most states is successful completion of the USMLE or COMLEX series and at least one year of post-graduate training.</p>
<p>"The study found that being board certified (versus not), female (versus male), or US (versus internationally) trained were associated with marginal differences in performance quality. There were no statistically significant differences associated with medical school rank, among other physician characteristics. "</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that the above was not well known.</p>
<p>I am a little unclear (and a lot skeptical) about how they measured quality of care in this study. But putting that aside, I don’t think I ever chose my doctor based on his medical school, but I do check the diplomas in the doctors’ office when I can to see where they went, and am suitably impressed when I see a highly ranked medical school. It does matter to me.</p>
<p>I think a large number of people never consider to ask whether a physician is board certified in his specialty.</p>
<p>State laws permit licensed physician to hang out a shingle for specialties for which they may not have had any training. Each state has a physician licensing board , and to practice in any state a doctor must be licensed in that state (with exceptions for military physicians, who need to be licensed in ANY state, but not necessarily the state in which they are stationed… frequent moves would make it a nightmare to be licensed in every state they live in over the course of their career).</p>
<p>A license to practice is not the same as board certification. </p>
<p>Very young doctors may only be “Board Eligible”, which means they haven’t yet completed the requirements to be “Board Certified”.</p>
<p>I see a lot of specialists, and if I don’t have a recommendation or some clear picture of the doctors reputation to go by, I always look up where they went to school, how long they’ve been in practice, and what board certifications they have-- and I will continue to do so. There are enough doctors to choose from that I could decide I don’t want to see any male doctors without brown mustaches anymore if I didn’t want to, so I pick the most qualified-- no different from any other profession. I am sure I have missed out on some great doctors who didnt pass my test, but your only other option if you can’t get a recommendation from someone with a similar condition is to pick at random, which doesn’t work well.</p>
<p>I have seen some doctors I might not have ordinarily chosen for lack of other choices. From foreign medical schools I’ve never heard of, or not board certified in this particular branch of medicine. Some of those doctors have been great, others not so great.</p>
<p>I wish there were more widely used review websites for doctors. If we could be as into these sites as college kids are about ratemyprofessors, we could make much better choices.</p>
<p>Here’s what I imagine would happen in my very picky suburban area:</p>
<p>Doctor A would get rave reviews because she writes prescriptions for antibiotics whenever parents ask for them. Also for having video games in the waiting room.</p>
<p>Doctor B would get rave reviews for scheduling C sections for her patients’ convenience. Also for her pretty waiting room.</p>
<p>Doctor C would be flamed for following best practices regarding use of antibiotics. Quotes like this would appear: " Dr. C refused to give my sick child an antibiotic for her sore throat. She was sick for a week! Never returning!" ( failing to mention that the child tested negative for strep, etc., and had a virus.)</p>
<p>Doctor D would be flamed for following best practices by refusing to schedule nonindicated C-sections for the convienience of the mother. The comments would, of course, fail to mention that there was no indication for a scheduled C-section.
,
That is the kind of gossip that goes around. “Rate My Doctor” would only make it permanently a part of internet misinformation.</p>
<p>Many hospitals will not give privileges to doctors who are not board certified, or at least board eligible and getting ready to take the board exams.</p>
<p>I want my doctors board certified in their specialty; there’s no excuse (aside from the brand new newbies who are waiting to take boards) for them not to be. And I couldn’t be bothered with a nurse-practitioner, physician’s assistant, or such. I want someone who’s undergone the rigor of medical school and residency. My H (who is a physician) has been a residency director and now does some training of physician’s assistants in his office and the level of rigor they have to go through is nothing compared to a physician. He’s had some of them say things to him like - well, why would you expect me to remember (XYZ about human anatomy)? It’s been 2 years since I took anatomy. Really now? Sorry, from the stories I hear, they seem like unimpressive students in unimpressive programs.</p>
<p>I am more concerned where they did their residency and/or fellowships. When I look up their ratings, the comments tend to focus on waiting room times-- which in my area are pretty short. “He made us wait 20 minutes.”</p>
<p>I was a little freaked out that my surgeon who was scheduled to do my knee replacement was only board eligible, but I was also to the point where I just didnt care anymore.
It turned out great! ( He is quite young)</p>
<p>Eastcoastcrazy, its a shame that patients dont educate themselves regarding best practices, but then I would expect the Dr to do so.</p>
<p>Does “board eligible” actually differentiate between Doctors who have not taken boards and Doctors who refuse to to take them or do not pass? To me, it seems that any Doctor who is not board certified could be considered board eligible.</p>
<p>The “best doctors” listed in local city magazines are a complete sham. They have nothing to do with anything, just whichever doctors are good at generating publicity. I wouldn’t pay one bit of attention.</p>
<p>And I thought it was common knowledge that medical school training is so “flat” that there are not huge diffs between the highest ranked and the lowest ranked (within the US, that is). It’s not like the difference between Harvard and East Directional State U. The higher ranked ones are better for those intending careers in academic medicine and / or public health, but very little diff when it comes to everyday diagnosis and treatment.</p>
<p>I asked a neurosurgeon once whether he was board certified and he laughed. Then he added that he had done the surgery my husband needed many, many times in his short career and I might find a board-certified doc who had never done it.</p>
<p>This thread is interesting to me, as it was here on CC that I learned that it doesn’t matter where you do your undergrad if you plan to go to med school. Now I learn that it doesn’t matter where you go to med school either. When you put those two facts together, what is it saying? I’m not sure.</p>