Doctor is the most important person on whom the fate of patient’s treatment depends upon. Hence for any major treatment it is absolutely important to select a doctor who is the best for you. But due to complexity and technicality of medical field, most common people find it difficult to decide about selection of doctor. Here are 5 points that one can use to select a good doctor for themselves. (Also check my post on ‘5 points on how to select a good hospital’)
1. Expertise of the doctor:
The first thing that should be checked is to see if the doctor has expertise in treating the type of healthcare problem you have. Here, I don’t mean his/her specialization (i.e. Medicine, Surgery, Gynaec etc.) but specific healthcare problems (diseases) the doctor has developed his/her expertise in treating. For example, within orthopaedic surgeons there are some who hold expertise in doing joint replacement. Similarly, amongst general physician there are doctors who have mastered in handling diabetic cases. This is especially important in case of major or critical illness. An expert doctor will have better capability in treating the disease related to his/her area and handling any complications that may arise. Medical qualifications of the doctor coupled with his experience in treating specific health problems determines the doctor’s expertise. In most cases the doctor’s visiting card, name plate or display at his/her clinic will mention the specialization. Otherwise, you can just enquire about the doctor’s expertise from other doctors.2. Medical college from where the doctor qualified:
Medicine is a field which requires high level of intellect and the doctors with higher intellect generally study in best of the medical institutions. Thus, the place from the doctor obtained his/her degrees should be used as a criterion for selecting a hospital. While there are few excellent medical institutions in India (AIIMS, CMC-Vellore, PGIs, AFMC, St. John’s, Maulana Azad etc.), in general most government medical college gets the meritorious students compared to private medical colleges. A doctor passed out from large government medical college also gets the maximum opportunity to learn from diverse kinds of medical cases with volume.
3. Experience and the quality of experience:
Medical science is a practice based profession where experience is highly important. More experienced the doctor better it is for patient. Although there are no defined years of experience to consider, in most specialization 5 or more years of experience should be good enough. Along with the length of experience, quality of experience should also be looked. For example, a doctor having experience of working in best of the medical institution will have an edge over the doctor whose experience has merely been in his/her own clinic.
4. Reviews from other patients of the doctor:
If you manage to get opinion of some of the patients who have obtained treatment from the doctor, that would serve as the best information for selecting a doctor. While in most developed nations, patients’ reviews of doctors are available online in abundance, in India unfortunately this trend is yet to pick up. Few websites like www.practo.com have started collecting reviews of the doctors. They also provide some details of the doctor which can help in getting other information listed above.
One difficulty that many patient face while selecting a doctor is the lack of easily availability of information about them. However, with internet becoming popular amongst doctors, this problem is fast going away. Credentials and experience of most doctors can be found through internet search with much ease now. Sites like www.practo.com, www.infodoctor.in and www.drdata.in are few website that displays profile of doctors having necessary information. Validity of a doctor’s qualification can be checked through an online portal of Medical Council of India.
If you have any suggestion for this post or have any question, please ask in comment.
