Hello and Happy Summer!

This month marks the beginning of a change in direction for the blog.

I will be cross posting Twitter feeds, Facebook postings, and RealSelf.com answers to plastic surgery questions right here.

Check out the wider and fresher variety of postings.

But don’t forget to log off and go outside and play too.

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Cinq mille. Fünftausend. Cinque mila. Femtusen.

Can you believe it?

Today we registered our 5000th new patient to join Downey Plastic Surgery. This is since our inception in 2006. That’s a pretty good pace of growth.

We simply abide by our mission of sensible, individualized, quality plastic surgical care. I am blessed with a fantastic staff who care for our patients the way you and I would prefer to be cared for. I am very proud of them.

Thank you everyone for patronizing the practice with word of mouth referrals or recommendations from your own physicians. It is a real honor to be able to care for patients in this specialty of medicine.

It is an honor to be selected again (9th time!) as a Top Doctor in Seattle Met’s annual rankings. Nearly 4,000 doctors in the Seattle metropolitan area participated in our new and improved survey, the result of a partnership between Seattle Met andAvvo. Avvo rates and profiles 90 percent of doctors in the U.S., including every doctor in Washington State.

The 2011 survey is more comprehensive than ever, with active participation from almost 40 percent of doctors practicing in King, Kitsap, and Snohomish counties, and parts of Pierce County. Avvo’s proprietary algorithms rate doctors on a 10-point scale, employing not only peer endorsements but factors such as experience, education, training, disciplinary history, fellowships, hospital privileges, and awards. Avvo’s dynamic ratings of the 9,933 doctors in the survey area are regularly refreshed based on new information gleaned from doctors as well as from certifying and licensing boards. The doctors on the pages that follow represent the top 5 percent of practitioners in their fields as of May 24.

For specialists not included in Avvo’s service—acupuncturists, chiropractors, naturopaths, optometrists, and podiatrists—the rankings are based on nominations from doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, and other health care professionals. Our survey asked those professionals to name the colleagues they would choose to treat themselves and their loved ones. The resulting list of 612 top practitioners in their fields is presented here alphabetically by specialty and alphabetically by last name.

Seattle Met researchers gave each Top Doctor the opportunity to specify areas of focus within his or her practice or exemplary cases recently treated. For example, a doctor in the field of cardiology might list cardiovascular risk assessment, preventive cardiology, diagnostic cardiology, and cholesterol management to provide the reader with more context regarding her practice. This in no way indicates that the doctor’s practice is limited to those areas of focus.

I received this award from Super Doctors, and I though I’d share it with you. In brief, only 5% of all doctors nationwide receive this award, so I am honored by being included in this cohort.

The selection processes for some peer-reviewed systems can be “gamed”, meaning you can write a check and pump up your ratings and stature, or you can stuff the ballot box either by yourself or by getting you mom, sister, and all your cousins to click-in and nominate you. Hardly fair. Below is how Super Doctors conducts their nomination and selection process. Despite the corny name, their methods do reflect thoughtfulness and an earnest desire to highlight doctors in communities nationwide who try to seek excellence. See their method:

The Super Doctors selection process

The letter I received read from Doximity:

Hi Dr. Downey!

Congratulations on being named one of Consumers Checkbooks’ Top Doctors.

In recognition we’ve added this icon to your profile to reflect you’re respected standing among your physician colleague:

Nonprofit Consumers’ CHECKBOOK surveyed roughly 375,000 physicians to tell us which specialists they would want to care for a loved one. Consumers’ Checkbook is nonprofit & unbiased,
and accepts no advertising, which prevents ballot-box stuffing.

Top Doctors names over 24,000 doctors who were mentioned most often in over thirty-five specialties, which is the top 6.5%