Though the search for a doctor can be stressful and confusing for patients and their families, one Great Neck man is working to make the process easier.
William Liss-Levinson, a 36-year resident of the Village of Great Neck, is the chief strategy and operations officer for Castle Connolly, which publishes an authoritative yearly guide to the best doctors in the United States.
On Tuesday, Castle Connoly released the eighth edition of America’s Top Doctors for Cancer, the firm’s guide to the premier cancer specialists in America.
“People have choices, and if you’re a resident of Great Neck or other areas in Nassau County or the Metro New York area, you’re blessed with a great wealth of [medical options,]” said Liss-Levinson. “You want to know that you’re going to someone who’s considered to be outstanding in their field.”
The guide is being released for the first time in a slimmed-down magazine format, a change that Levinson said makes it more approachable while providing the same level of information.
““We used to have rather extensive indices in the book, and we don’t include those,” said Levinson. “But other than that, it has more than 2,600 physicians who are considered to be nationally among the best.”
Castle Connolly’s rankings are compiled through nominations by physicians nationwide and research by the firm’s staff. Liss-Levinson said more than 100,000 nominations were received this year across all specialties.
Castle Connolly President and CEO John Connolly said providing resources for people to find highly rated doctors can help improve medical outcomes.
“If people can really get to the best doctors, if they can avoid the worst doctors, they’re going to get better health care,” Connolly said.
“Sometimes people resort to yellow pages, other kinds of directories… you really in some ways don’t always know whether or not the source of the information you’re getting is really a vetted or credentialed source,” Liss-Levinson said.
Those seeking the attentions of local specialists may find the guide useful; it features more than 500 doctors in Nassau County and close to 100 cancer specialists, Liss-Levinson said.
Liss-Levinson said he and his wife Nechama raised two now-grown daughters in Great Neck and are active members of the Great Neck Synagogue.
“I started off as a psychologist working with cancer patients in Suffolk County,” Liss-Levinson said, before founding the Brooklyn Hospice in 1979.
He said the change from clinical care to administrative work came with some costs, but allowed him to put larger ideas about the medical system into practice.
“It was an interesting decision. I made that transition at a fairly early age when I was hired to create the hospice program,” Liss-Levinson said. “I was going on 28. It was at the time an interesting, difficult kind of transition for me because I loved working directly with patients and their families.”
“You sacrifice that very visceral gratification that you get from that clinical interaction for what is a broader impact in the health care system,” he continued.
Patients looking for Castle Connolly’s ratings can also turn to the internet. U.S. News’ top doctors search engine, using data from Castle Connolly, can be found at http://health.usnews.com/top-doctors.
