MED Physicians Among Boston’s Top Docs

Boston magazine’s annual list includes 68 faculty

Boston magazine’s “Top Docs 2013” list includes 68 from the BU School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.

Boston magazine’s “Top Docs 2013” list includes 68 from the BU School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.

Among the 650 physicians named to Boston magazine’s recently released “Top Docs 2013” list are 68 from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and the BU School of Medicine. The list, which provides consumers with information on the Hub’s top doctors across 50 specialties, commended BMC physicians from 30 different disciplines, such as cardiovascular disease, surgery, and pathology, and profiled another—Jeffrey Kalish, a MED assistant professor of surgery and of radiology and BMC director of endovascular surgery—for heroic work during the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings. The list appears in the magazine’s December issue.

“We are delighted that these outstanding faculty are being recognized by their colleagues for providing the highest quality of compassionate care,” says Karen Antman, MED dean and provost of the Medical Campus.

Alik Farber, a MED associate professor of surgery and of radiology and chief of the BMC division of vascular and endovascular surgery, has been included on the list in the vascular surgery category each year since 2010.

“To be nominated in a city that is the center for medicine for the United States and possibly the world is a humbling experience,” Farber says. Having 67 of his colleagues on the list, he adds, is “an important accolade for Boston Medical Center.”

Francis A. Farraye, a MED professor of medicine and codirector of BMC’s Center for Digestive Disorders, has held a spot as a top gastroenterologist on the list each year since 2010. Farraye is especially proud of the gastroenterology department’s recognition, in light of the fact that it is smaller than those at many of the other teaching facilities in Boston. Four gastroenterologists were named to the list this year, which he says is “a testament to the breadth of the clinical faculty.”

The profile of Kalish, titled “Six Heroic Saves,” focused on his work treating Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a professional ballroom dancer whose foot Kalish amputated. The two became close during her stay at BMC. Nearly eight months later, Haslet-Davis is dancing—albeit differently—and her doctor promises to watch her perform again someday.

Kalish says that “when members of the health care system get together across disciplines, we provide more effective and better care for all of our patients.” In the aftermath of the bombings, he recalls, professionals from all specialties and ranks worked in sync to determine the best course of action for the patients. “Forming bonds with these patients through this tragedy reinvigorated for many of us why we actually went into health care,” he says. “It reminds us why we do this.

“I’m just one person that was part of an enormity of people that did amazing work, he says. “While I have this unique bond with Adrianne, there are plenty of others who have done the same.”

Kalish says the medical community learned “amazing lessons” this year. Boston’s December issue should reinforce Bostonians’ confidence in their medical community as it proves “the variety and strength of physicians and the ability of the city’s medical community to address any problem that might arise,” he says.

To be included in Boston magazine’s Top Doc list, physicians undergo a rigorous screening process by national medical research firm Castle Connolly. The firm gathers nominations online from other licensed physicians, conducts phone interviews with medical professionals to corroborate nominations, and checks the professional qualifications of all nominees, among them education, experience, and disciplinary history. The nominees complete a professional biography form, and the information is cross-referenced and confirmed.

“We have an incredible medical community here in Boston, and that was on full display in the wake of the Marathon bombings,” says Boston magazine senior editor Janelle Nanos. Nanos says she relished the opportunity this year “to celebrate the work that they did and acknowledge how lucky we are as citizens of Boston to be surrounded by such amazing medical professionals.”

A full list of 2013’s “Top Docs” and those from Boston Medical Center is here.

This BU Today story was written by Emily Truax.

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