US News & World Report and Castle Connolly Collaborate to Help Consumers Find the Best Hospitals and the Top Doctors

 

Washington DC & New York, NY; March 16, 2011

The nation’s two leading companies involved in quality metrics in healthcare—Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. and U.S. News & World Report—announced the creation of a powerful collaboration that will bring the Castle Connolly Top Doctors database to online visitors to the U.S. News website. The online database will become live on www.usnews.com in the coming months and will be linked with the U.S. News database of Best Hospitals.

 

“We believe this is an important step for both companies—it brings information on excellent physicians directly into the hands of consumers,” said Dr. John J. Connolly, President and CEO of Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.  “Given the unsettled future of the delivery and financing of healthcare and the changing nature of physician practices, it is critical that consumers have trusted sources of high quality information about both doctors and hospitals.  The U.S. News/Castle Connolly collaboration will expand both companies’ ability to achieve that goal.” 

“We’re in the business of providing people with information that helps them make important decisions,” said Brian Kelly, Editor of U.S. News & World Report. “We’ve long admired the work of Castle Connolly, a company that shares our commitment to quality. Together we’ll be able to help more people make informed choices about managing their health.”

 

On the U.S. News website, consumers will be able to search the full database of Top Doctors across the nation, including all specialties and subspecialties.  The detailed physician profiles, including designation of doctors affiliated with Castle Connolly’s Partnership for Excellence hospital program, will be drawn from Castle Connolly’s growing database of over 27,000 physicians currently accessible online at www.castleconnolly.com.  Selected physicians may also appear in Castle Connolly’s acclaimed national print publications, including America’s Top Doctors® and America’s Top Doctors® for Cancer, in its regional Top Doctors’ publications, in one of 30+ regional magazines that feature Top Doctors, and /or as regional top doctors online within their local market. 

 

The Castle Connolly Top Doctors selection process begins with online surveys of physicians in both academic and private practice positions across the U.S., who are asked to nominate physicians they consider best in their respective areas of medicine.  Once these professional peer nominations are processed, a unique, physician-led research team carefully reviews the credentials of every physician being considered for inclusion as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor.  This review includes, among other factors, scrutiny of medical education, training, hospital appointments, administrative posts, professional achievements, and malpractice and disciplinary history.  Doctors do not andcannot pay to be included in any Castle Connolly listing or guide.

About U.S. News Media Group
The U.S. News Media Group is a multi-platform digital publisher of news and analysis, which includesU.S. News & World Report print publications, the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine,www.usnews.com, and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Money, Education,Autos, Travel and Politics, the U.S. News Media Group has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. Signature franchises include the trademarked News You Can Use brand of journalism and "Best" series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and more.

 

About Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., a healthcare research, information, and publishing company, has been America's trusted source for identifying top doctors for 20 years.  The company publishes the consumer guides America's Top Doctors®, America's Top Doctors® for Cancer, Top Doctors: New York Metro Area and other consumer guides.  Castle Connolly works with more than 30 national and regional publications, such as Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Ladies' Home Journal, Men's Health, Women's Health, and New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Oklahoma, and Chicagomagazines to provide the information for their "Top Doctors" features.

 

Founded in 1991 by two respected leaders in healthcare, John K. Castle (Chairman) and John J. Connolly, Ed. D., (President and CEO), who served as board chairman and president, respectively, of New York Medical College.  Its mission is to help consumers find the best healthcare through their guides, their website, and various consumer and business-oriented print and online partnerships.   Castle Connolly's valuable Top Doctors information can also be accessed online atwww.castleconnolly.com and on other affiliated websites.  Castle Connolly’s social media outlets can be found at www.facebook.com/TopDoctors  and www.twitter.com/castleconnolly 

 

For further information about U.S. News & World Report, contact: Alexi Turbow,[email protected]

 

For further  information about Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., contact: William Liss-Levinson, Ph.D., Vice-President, Chief Strategy & Operations Officer, 212.367.8400, ext. 14 or [email protected]

NOMINATION PROCESS  
How Castle Connolly Makes Its "Top Doctors" Selections
Castle Connolly's Top Doctors™ selection process begins with surveys of physicians and healthcare professionals. Each year, Castle Connolly surveys thousands of physicians and other healthcare professionals and asks them to identify excellent doctors in every specialty in their region and throughout the nation. When we began the research for the first edition of America's Top Doctors®, we surveyed over 230,000 of the nation's leading medical specialists, department chairs, residency program directors, vice presidents of medical affairs and presidents of the nation's leading medical centers and specialty hospitals.

In addition to mail and online surveys, the Castle Connolly physician-led research team makes thousands of phone calls each year, talking with leading specialists, chairs of clinical departments and vice presidents of medical affairs, seeking to identify top specialists for most diseases and procedures.

The Castle Connolly physician-led research team carefully reviews the credentials of every physician being considered for inclusion in Castle Connolly Guides®, magazine articles and website. The review includes, among other factors, scrutiny of medical education, training, hospital appointments, administrative posts, professional achievements, and malpractice and disciplinary history.

Information on outcomes, procedure volume and malpractice is becoming increasingly available, but the public disclosure varies from state to state. Castle Connolly uses its best efforts to gather the information that is available and use it effectively. Ultimately, however, it is the professional judgment of the Castle Connolly editors, the Chief Medical and Research Officer and the research staff, which determines Castle Connolly Top Doctor™ selection.

Physicians may also be removed from the Castle Connolly lists if, in the judgment of the selection team, that is warranted. Some of the reasons physicians are removed include retirement, change in practice (taking a full time administrative post, for example), unavailability to patients, malpractice or disciplinary issues, negative physician or patient feedback, professional demeanor or a change in the "mix" of specialists Castle Connolly will present for a given community. Being removed from a Castle Connolly list does not necessarily indicate something negative about the physician. At the same time, Castle Connolly does not claim to identify every excellent physician in the nation or a region. The physicians identified through the Castle Connolly research process are clearly among the very best, but there are always other very good physicians not identified by Castle Connolly and that is why our guides, websites and other distribution channels for this critical information describe a process whereby consumers can identify excellent physicians using their own efforts.

How does Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. get its physician information?
Each of the selected doctors is asked to complete a comprehensive professional biography form and also provide information on their special practice areas of expertise. The information contained in the biographical forms becomes an integral part of selected doctors' listings in the Guide.

How often does Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. update profiles of America's Top Doctors?
The listings of top doctors are updated annually. Additionally, as Castle Connolly's research staff becomes aware of changes in doctors' information, changes are made on an ongoing basis in doctors' profiles.

Do doctors pay to be listed in Castle Connolly Guides?
No. Doctors cannot and do not pay to be listed in any Castle Connolly guide to top doctors. They are selected based on nominations by their peers and reviewed by Castle Connolly's physician-directed research team.
ABOUT CASTLE CONNOLLY MEDICAL LTD
The mission of Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is to help consumers find the best healthcare. To this end, we publish a variety of books including the "Top Doctors" series, the most popular of which is America's Top Doctors®. The top doctors who are listed in our books and on this website's directory were nominated by their peers in an extensive survey process of thousands of American doctors each year. These Top Doctors' medical educations, training, hospital appointments, disciplinary histories - and much more - are screened by the Castle Connolly physician-led research team. Those doctors who are among the very best in their specialties and in their communities are selected for inclusion. Doctors do not and cannot pay to be included in any Castle Connolly Guide or online directory. www.castleconnolly.com.

Castle Connolly offers individual and corporate memberships to its website along with a number of corporate products and services such as a New Movers Program, a Doctor-Patient Advisor Service and Castle Connolly LifeStream MD service.

The company was founded by two respected leaders in healthcare, John K. Castle and John J. Connolly, Ed.D. Dr. Connolly was the President of New York Medical College for more than ten years. Mr. Castle served for six years as a commissioner and executive officer of the Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO); he also served as Chairman of the Board of New York Medical College for eleven years and served on its Board for twenty-two years.

The professional staff at Castle Connolly is led by Jean Morgan, M.D., Vice President, Chief Medical & Research Officer and William Liss-Levinson, Ph.D., VP, Chief Strategy & Operations Officer.

Castle Connolly principals and its publications of America's Top Doctors® have been recognized by major American media including "Good Morning America" (ABC-TV), "20/20" (ABC-TV), "48 Hours" (CBS-TV), Fox Cable News (national), "Morning News" (CNN) and "Weekend Today in New York" (WNBC-TV), The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Daily News (New York) the Boston Herald and other newspapers. Many national and regional magazines have featured Castle Connolly guides to America's Top Doctors® and/or Doctor Connolly in stories. Magazine coverage of "Top Doctors in America" has included Fortune, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Money Magazine, New York Magazine,Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago Magazine, Atlanta Magazine and many others.