The Most Necessary Profession

Not a week goes by without hearing from several people in support of Ingram’s annual Special Medical Edition. Certainly the Medical Edition is one of our favorites, and in my opinion, it’s the most important one we publish.

Ironically, we receive many calls each year from people in search of a reputable physician in a given field or specialty. Often, these requests come someone who is encountering a life threatening situation or the loved one of someone who is. By no means do we represent ourselves as being qualified to make a responsible recommendation of a physician or specialist. There are, however, few organizations that have dedicated the necessary time and interest to identify the most respected physicians as Ingram’s team of editors have.

This is the 7th year of naming a Class of Top Doctors in Ingram’s Special Medical Edition. Those of you who know us realize the diligence we conduct in making the difficult and always politically-challenging decisions we do. When we started this process we surveyed 3,500 area physicians to help name the individuals they believe to be the best—those specialists either they or a family member would see if they encountered a life-threatening illness. The results—nearly 1,000 physicians responded, only a dozen or so with more than one recommendation. In nearly every case, they voted for themselves. So much for that theory.

We then asked area healthcare professionals and hospital administrators for their opinions to help name our “Top Docs”. Not only was this approach in most cases skewed by politics, but it was also awkward for those we asked.

The first few years of naming Ingram’s Top Doctors were a real challenge, I’ll confess. But the evolution of the Top Doc selection process now yields the recommendations (and opinions) of nearly all of the now 65 alums from previous years. This year’s class brings us to 77. Going forward there will be a natural attrition with retirements and relocations—in fact we do not see the number of practicing physicians exceeding 100 and are quite certain the Top Doctor program will perpetuate for many years to come.

What makes the selection process unique is that, by and large, the decisions are being influenced by Top Doc honorees from previous years. They not only have more respect to their peers than the hospital or system they represent, but they care deeply about the integrity of the colleagues they share the honor with.

Times Have Changed

There’s no question of the radical changes that have occurred in healthcare. Physicians have dedicated many years, in some cases decades of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a vocation they believe to be the most important—enriching and even saving the lives of their patients.

Today the fabric of healthcare is our nation is very different than when this year’s class of Top Docs performed their residency. It has become a corporate culture, a business of profits and positioning. At Ingram’s we certainly advocate free enterprise and encourage growth. We pay very close attention to business trends and how people are affected by change.

We wonder, however, whether the current mixed system much resembles free enterprise. Given the challenges physicians face with medical malpractice insurance, insurance reimbursement, lower salaries and/or compensation opportunities and a plethora of other issues, it has become something less certain, and certainly less settled.

We are pleased, however, to report that the quality of healthcare and the care that physicians take of their patients continues to improve in spite of a system that seems designed to confound everyone. To those “Heroes in Healthcare” we dedicate this edition. May their spirit of compassion and competence never cease to remain at the forefront of their mission.

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher
jsweeney@ingramsonline.com