How Do You Find a Good Physician?
Question by love: How do you find a good Physician?
I went undiagnosed with Celiac for years, throwing up daily, weighed only 80 pounds, lost my hair, had horrible stomach aches, like I was going to die, nearly lost my job, couldn’t function, my life was hell.
The only reason I was diagnosed, was because I did research online, diagsosed myself, and insisted on a referral to a specialist for confirmation of my diagnosis, before starting my gluten-free diet treatment. Now I feel great, but I lost a couple years of life because no one in the medical community was listening to me.
This is just one of many instances where I felt like my Dr hasn’t been listening to me- just writing a persciption to get me out ASAP. I feel like the treatment a Dr. gives is heavily influced by big pharma. I want a more wholistic and preventative experience, but need it covered by Aetna. I also want a Dr. that is up to date on research, and doesn’t receive all his current information from Big Pharma Reps.
So where can I find a better physician experience? Are there any online resources, or a list of questions I could ask to determine how influenced a doc is by Pharmacutical Reps?
I’m not dumping my old doc simple b/c of this- i moved.
Best answer:
Answer by dan
Hi, I am gluten intolerant and had to diagnose myself. GP’s are so busy and have to know something (cursory) about everything. As you probably know, GP’s standard of care is “standard” everywhere. They practice evidence based medicine they learned from clinical rotations and their residencies (not much is applicable from the first two years of med school (basic sciences). Depending where they did their residency will determine the depth of knowledge.
I work with medical PhD researchers who are working on advanced medicine we will not see mainstream for another 20 years, if ever. So, the GP’s primary goal is to follow the allopathic path (same for all AMA physicians) , create the differential diagnosis and provide you with a solution. Whether it works or not is hit and miss.
They put out small fires and for more complicated issues, will refer you to a specialist. Also, depending on their age, they may be out of touch with new approaches.
A friend’s referral for the most part is not worth much. Their satisfaction is dependent on their specific issue(s) and will differ vastly from your needs. I know hundreds of physicians that are tops in their fields so when I have a question, I know who is the expert. It’s very difficult for most people with a complex situation to find a good, competent physician who understand an elusive outlying disease.
Answer by Julzz33
I know what you’re going through! I myself have lyme disease as well as two other genetic conditions that went undiagnosed for over 10 years due to doctor negligence 🙁
I can tell you there is not way to find out how “influenced” a doctor is by the pharmaceutical industry. This information is kept private, between the doctor and… well, the doctor. Not even the drug companies know exactly how much influence they’re having over a particular physician. And since “influencing” is technically illegal in the medical world anyway, you’ll never get an answer to that question…
I can tell you first off what will help is to make sure your physician is a D.O. and not an M.D. They basically both have the same medical training, but a D.O. believes in a more holistic approach, and is generally more focused on diagnostics and less focused on a “write a script and get the patient out” philosophy. There are exceptions to this of course; but it generally tends to hold true much of the time.
I highly recommend finding physicians thru ACAM (American College for Advancement in Medicine). It’s a huge community of physicians who base their practices on listening to the patient, keeping up on the latest research, and they’re all familiar with diagnosing and treating most of the more underdiagnosed disorders (such as celiac’s, fibromyalgia, etc.). I don’t know who takes your insurance, but I can say there are plenty of regular family physicians working under ACAM and many of them take a lot of different types of insurances. I’d avoid the naturopathic physicians here though; some of them are excellent physicians, but they tend to be a little bit too “all natural” and aren’t always willing to use drugs, such as antibiotics, when needed (although maybe this is what you’re looking for?)?. The website is: http://www.acamnet.org/site/c.ltJWJ4MPIwE/b.5420171/k.7A8D/ACAM_Homepage.htm
The physician search link is under the “public” tab.
Another excellent resource is the American Academy of Integrative Medicine – very similar principle, very knowledgeable, concerned, and caring docs working to change medicine for the better!
Here’s the site: http://www.aaimedicine.com/ There is a physician search feature here as well.
If you go thru either AAIM or ACAM, don’t worry about whether the doc is an MD or DO – these docs are exceptional regardless.
Otherwise, my last suggestion is to go through your nearest famous university hospital (if you’re near one) and get a referral to an INTERNAL MEDICINE specialist who also practices general or family medicine. I would go with a D.O. if you can. Internal Medicine specialists (other than someone who is solely focused on family medicine) tend to be more diagnostically inquisitive and driven to find the cause of an ailment. Going through a major university will also mean they are affiliated with that university, and are more up to date on research.
For example, if you live near any of these medical centers, I’d use them as resources for finding a doctor:
Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cedars-Sinai, University of California, San Francisco, Harvard (Brigham-Womens hospital), Duke, Brown, UCLA, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Mount Sinai, Stanford, NYU, Vanderbilt U. (Nashville), U. of Pennsylvania, U. of Washington (Seattle), or U. of Pittsburgh Medical Center….
They all have a patient hotline where you can call and get a referral to one of their on-staff general medical practitioners. Most likely, they will have an off-campus practice that’s easy to get to, and will accept many different types of insurance.
Here’s a link to some more hospitals that have excellent physician departments:
http://www.100tophospitals.com/winners/nationalwinners.aspx
One last piece of advice: Specialists exist for a reason: general practitioners can’t know everything. For that reason, it’s important for you to refer yourself to a specialist immediately (as long as insurance permits) without waiting to see your GP too many times on an issue. A good GP will refer you out immediately, but sometimes they wait for you to ask for a referral! For example, if you’re having stomach issues, START with a gastroenterologist. Skip your GP all together if you can. Doctors allow you to self-refer if it’s OK w/your insurance. If you’re having body pain: again, skip the GP and go to a rheumatologist. If you’re having headaches: Get to a neurologist.
You’d be surprised how much more knowledge a specialist (even an uneducated, small town specialist) will have over your GP, and how much more quickly and properly you will get diagnosed if you’re able to get to the right specialist right away.
When you find a doc you are interested in, you can use www.healthgrades.com and yelp.com to check patient reviews – if patients aren’t happy with their doctor in any way, they’ll post reviews here. It will also tell you where they went to med school, how long they’ve been practicing, and if they’ve ever had a lawsuit.
Good luck, I know how hard it is to find a good doctor 😉
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