While opting out of the peer-nomination process and focusing on increased data-driven analysis establishes an objectivity, it also presents difficulty in ranking other specialties, like rheumatology, where outcomes are not as measureable. Hoping to publish cross-specialty ratings, Dr. Santa urges rheumatologists to “look at what the STS has done and, within the discipline, start identifying the key performance measures that identify a good rheumatologist, and start collecting and sharing that information with other rheumatologists and physicians to hopefully arrive at something more objective in terms of performance [than reputation].”
Rheumatologists React
Until a more exact equation for defining physician quality is determined, however, these lists will likely have little bearing on physicians. Bruce Solitar, MD, clinical associate professor at NYU’s Hospital for Joint Diseases and a Manhattan-based rheumatologist, says that, although certain rankings are helpful in drawing new patients to his office and are, to a degree, self-assuring, he concedes, “I don’t think it makes me a better doctor because I’m on a list; I know there are many good doctors that aren’t. But, my mom loves to see my name on the list.” David Borenstein, MD, clinical professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology at The George Washington University Medical Center, Washington-based rheumatologist, and president of the ACR, tends to take Dr. Solitar’s ambivalent approach: “It’s a good thing to know that you’re doing a good job, but you get up every day, you go to work, try to do the best you can, and if it’s worthy of some recognition—great. But that clearly is the icing on the cake.”