We’ve put SO many posts up on the internet on this subject over the years, on this and other blogs – at least 15. And after 12 years of working on how best to find the best medical specialists to use, and the ones who are perhaps best not to use, and, at the risk of repeating ourselves, this is what we’ve now concluded we do ourselves, and recommend to others.
Firstly, we click on www.ratemds.com which takes us to a website based in Canada, on the other side of the world which claims to list reviews and ratings on over 2 million doctors working in cities all round the world in 58 areas of specialisation – and we choose our city and the area of specialisation we’re seeking help in.
As an example, we could choose “Urologist” in Sydney, as we’ve done recently, and the names of 33 doctors in Sydney with reviews and ratings came up, together with lots of names of doctor that don’t have reviews and ratings.
We don’t take much notice of reviews and ratings these days, although occasionally they may be worth perusing – but we use the names of doctors found in these ways as starting points.
Secondly, we then do Google searches on one or more of the 33 names of the doctors with reviews and ratings that come up – mainly looking for (i) those who have ordinary email addresses, (ii) those who have their own websites, and (iii) those who may be the most convenient for us to visit and use.
(i) We seldom/never bother with specialists who don’t have ordinary email addresses, for reasons we’ll go into more fully later – but mainly because we only want to use doctors who are prepared to put things in writing, because if people, not just doctors, are prepared to put things in writing, it indicates they are prepared to stand by what they do and say, which is SO important, and emails are the most efficient means of putting things in writing these days, for all concerned. And also, if people, not just doctors, are not prepared to provide reasonable responses to emails sent to them within 10 days, we’ve found, to our incredible cost, that they should NOT be used in any circumstances.
(ii) We can never understand how Medical Specialists expect to practice these days without having a website or blog of their own – when school children can create websites and blogs these days, and when it costs less than $5 a week to have them hosted. And without their own ordinary email addresses, which are used by them and them alone.
Thirdly, When a Specialist has been found with an ordinary email address and who may be relatively convenient to see and use, we send them an email along these lines.
And have at least an initial face-to-face consultation with the one or two who provide us with the best response or responses.
How many of such emails should be sent out? We always say we should keep sending them out until we get at least one response that impresses us enough for us to want to go to the trouble and expense of having at least one face-to-face consultation with it’s author – this may happen with the first one or we may have to send out 30!
Fourthly, after we’ve had a face to face consultation with a doctor email him or her with something like this.
And, if a doctor won’t respond to an email like this with a least a “Yes” or “No” answer, find someone else, keep working.
This may sound like a lot of work, and it is. But it’s about our most valuable asset – our health. And it could save us thousands of dollars, hours and hours of our valuable time, and more.
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