Earlier this year, we invited nearly 12,000 physicians in DC, Maryland,and Virginia to nominate colleagues, in each of 40 specialties, whom they trust to provide care for their patients. Here you will find the local doctors whose names appeared most frequently.
For the first time in the 36-year history of our Top Doctors issue, we conducted this survey online. Each electronic ballot had to bear a current, local medical-license number to be counted; in that way, each physician could vote just once while his or her anonymity was preserved. We received a tremendous response, allowing us to list more doctors in fast-developing areas both inside the Beltway and farther out in Virginia and Maryland.
As in the past, the list is neither a roll call of high-profile physicians nor a local doctors’ hall of fame—though many of our Top Docs might make such a roster. It’s intended to help you find the best medical care in your towns and neighborhoods. To that end, we sought nominations only for primary-care doctors and for specialists whom patients choose for themselves; anesthesiologists, diagnostic radiologists, and ER physicians—normally picked by another doctor or by circumstance—don’t appear. Doctors who treat mostly children or have special interests within their specialties are noted as such.
