FAQ: Find a Doctor

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Question: Where can I find a doctor who specializes in treating specific diseases or conditions?

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Answer:

To find doctors who treat specific diseases or conditions, we suggest the following:

Web Sites Telephone Suggestions Print Directories Contact an Author of a Journal Article

Web Sites

• - NLM MedlinePlus pages:
  
  
  • Directories of doctors, dentists, specialists, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals and facilities
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/directories.html
    
    
  • Choosing a Doctor or Health Care Service
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/choosingadoctororhealthcareservice.html
    
    
  • Managed Care
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/managedcare.html
  
  
• NIH Word on Health: Choosing a Doctor
  http://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/apr2003/doctorchoosing.htm
  
  
• American Board of Medical Specialties: Is Your Doctor Board Certified?
  http://www.abms.org/Who_We_Help/Consumers/verifying.aspx
  
  
• Association of State Medical Board Executive Directors Docfinder
  http://http://www.docboard.org/docfinder.html
  
  
• Directory of State Medical Boards
  http://www.fsmb.org/directory_smb.html
  
  
• Medicare Participating Physician Directory
  http://www2.medicare.gov/Physician/Search/PhysicianSearch.asp
  

Telephone Suggestions

• Phone your local county medical society for names of doctors and their specialties
  
  
• Phone a hospital for names of doctors who treat specific diseases or conditions
  
  
• Phone your doctor and ask for a recommendation to a specialist
  
  
• Phone your insurance provider for a list of approved doctors and specialists
  
  
• Look in your local telephone book under "Physicians," or check an online service like Switchboard.com
  http://www.switchboard.com
  
  

Print Directories

• Print directories are often in public, university or medical libraries. Ask a local librarian for assistance or call the NLM National Network of Libraries of Medicine for a local librarian to help you
  http://nnlm.gov/members/
  

Contact an Author of a Journal Article:

Search PubMed/MEDLINE for current medical journal articles on a specific disease or condition. This can help you identify researchers, hospitals and medical schools with certain specialties. Look for the author's contact information. Please note the contact e-mail or mail address for an author may not be up to date, but it is a good way to start. Try the following:

• Search for the author name in PubMed and look for the most recent article where your author is the first author.
  
  
  • Choose the "abstract view" in the Display menu.
    
    
  • Look for the institution address under the list of author names. This is the affiliation of the primary author at the time the article went to press. Use a Web search engine to find the institution's Web page and look for a staff directory. Sometimes you may be able to find an e-mail address or phone number for a researcher.
    
    
  • Open a full-text article, if possible. Some full-text articles (especially those in PubMed Central) will list the institutional address of each individual author. This list may also include a name and e-mail address of a designated "correspondent" for that article.
    
    
  
  
• You can also use the search tools listed above for finding a specialist. For researchers that do not have an M.D. degree, ask your local librarian to check their most current biographical directories or resources for a contact address.
  
  

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Related Questions:

Finding Consumer Health Information

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Last reviewed: 10 July 2008
Last updated: 10 July 2008
First published: 01 January 1998
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