Hartford Magazine releases its Best Doctors list for 2012.

Twenty years ago, two well-known physicians affiliated with Harvard Medical School founded a Boston-based company that today is known as Best Doctors, Inc. The mission then, as now, was to help seriously ill or injured patients – and even those with less serious ailments – find the best medical care available.

In the early 1990s, Best Doctors began producing books identifying the top physicians in a number of different fields, and also invited print media organizations to publish listings for their geographic areas as a public service. Hartford Magazine began publishing the company’s list of top-ranked physicians for Greater Hartford in 2004, and has been doing so each year since.

Every two years, all doctors on the list are re-evaluated and new ones are added. The list is updated in the years between, as physicians move away or retire, or Best Doctors move into our region. Best Doctors researches more than 40 medical specialties and 400 sub­specialties.

Podiatrists and chiropractors are not currently included in the research. Unlike some other top doctor compilations, the physicians on each Best Doctors list are not selected by popular vote, but by their peers.

“We ask doctors who they believe excels in a particular specialty or subspecialty, and to which doctor they would personally refer patients,” said a company representative. “There’s no chance to stuff the ballot box because you already have to be one of the best doctors to vote.”

We hope you find this list helpful the next time you or a loved one needs medical care.

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