Science gets lost in the firmament of New York. We think of the city as the financial capital of the world, and the arts capital, and the media capital, and the fashion capital. But for more than a century now, New York has also been one of the centers of a scientific revolution. New York doctors have been at the forefront of such medical breakthroughs as X-rays, blood banking and transfusions, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and the first successful heart transplant in a child. Other cities, like Boston and San Francisco, have impressive medical track records, too, but none can match New York’s legacy of firsts. Which brings us to the theme of this year’s “Best Doctors” issue—innovation. The issue begins with “Saving Face”, a portrait of a pioneering surgeon named Milton Waner, whose leading-edge work with children afflicted with severe, sometimes life-threatening facial deformities is as medically remarkable as it is moving. Profiles of twelve more breakthrough doctors, from an oncologist to a cosmetic dermatologist—appear here as well.
• Radiation Oncology: James Wong
• Orthopedics: Frank Cammisa Jr.
• Hearing: Anil Lalwani
• Aesthetics: Neil Sadick
• Psychiatry: Cynthia Pfeffer
• Asthma: Jordan Josephson
• Stroke: Bruce Volpe
• General Practice: Susan Massad
• Vascular Surgery: Michael Marin
• Neurology: Michael Kaplitt
• Oncology: Mark Kris
• Cardiology: Jeffrey Moses
As in the past (we’ve published “Best Doctors” for seven years in a row, plus a couple of odd years before that), the bulk of the issue highlights the area’s top physicians—1,235 of them from the five boroughs, Westchester County, Long Island, northern New Jersey, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. Our list includes 86 general practitioners and 1,149 specialists. For an explanation of how the doctors are elected, see “Who Decides?”.