Posted on December 15, 2021 by Hunter Hulbert - Health

Are you living in pain? Have you been putting off elective orthopaedic surgery, either because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or for other reasons? 

If you answered “yes” to both questions, consider these three facts about orthopaedic care in New Jersey:    

Orthopaedists have enhanced their already rigorous office sanitization protocols and are adhering to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention masking and social distancing guidelines. Photo courtesy of Getty Images

1.   Care is safer than ever As has been true for other specialties, orthopaedists have been keeping care safe and accessible throughout a pandemic that refuses to give up.  

Of course, orthopaedists have enhanced their already rigorous office sanitization protocols, are adhering to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention masking and social distancing guidelines, and are setting limits on waiting room capacity to help shield their patients — and themselves — from coronavirus infection.   

In addition to these standard measures, orthopaedic surgeons have taken further steps to refine their protocols to ensure patient safety during surgery such as by conducting more preoperative visits via telemedicine, testing patients for COVID-19 days before surgery and ordering patients to self-quarantine from the time they are tested until the procedure.               

2.   Procedures are more precise     Despite the myriad challenges posed by the pandemic to health care delivery, innovation in orthopaedic medicine has continued. Several new robotic and image guided procedures have gained or await U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. 

These advances translate into more efficient and precise hip, knee or disc replacement, fracture care, or acute injury treatment. And that means a shorter postsurgical recovery for most patients — and a faster return to the life they enjoyed before their injury.        

The Garden State is home to 1,067 licensed orthopaedic surgeons, doctor-search service Healthgrades reports. Photo courtesy of Getty Images

     3. An orthopaedic surgeon is nearby  

If you need a doctor, there’s no better place to be than New Jersey. 

The Garden State is home to 1,067 licensed orthopaedic surgeons, doctor-search service Healthgrades reports. But with all that choice comes a pressing question: “How do I choose the right orthopaedist?” With so many practicing orthopaedic surgeons within driving or commuting distance, finding the right one can be daunting. You need help sorting through the options.  

Enter the Castle Connolly Top Orthopaedic Doctors list.  

For nearly 30 years, Castle Connolly Top Doctors has asked physicians across the United States to recommend physicians for inclusion on the health care research company’s list of Top Doctors. Throughout this process, Castle Connolly essentially asks doctors: “If you or a family member needed care, which doctor would you choose?”      

So for specialty and primary physicians alike, recognition as a Top Doctor is a sign that they are recognized by their peers as among the best in their specialty. And for patients — whether they are confronting age-related pain or a sports-related injury — the Top Doctors list can help them find a surgeon who will target their pain and jumpstart their road to recovery.

That is why Jersey’s Best once again has partnered with Castle Connolly to provide information on hundreds of New Jersey-based orthopaedists who are on the Top Doctors list. These physicians have met Castle Connolly’s exacting criteria for inclusion based on their skills, professionalism, qualifications, competence and — importantly — their relational skills and empathy toward patients.  

Each Castle Connolly Top Doctor is nominated by a peer, then undergoes a rigorous vetting process by an experienced medical review board. Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Why choose a ‘Top Doctor’?   

Unlike other doctor-search sites that simply list every physician from a city or regional database, or list only those doctors who pay to be included, each Top Doctor is nominated by a peer, then undergoes a rigorous vetting process by an experienced medical review board. Candidates cannot nominate themselves, nor can a doctor pay to be on the list. And, once nominated, a doctor can only be included on the list after approval by Castle Connolly’s review board, chief medical officer, chief research officer and research staff.  

Not every doctor makes the Castle Connolly Top Doctors list: Of the more than 850,000 practicing doctors in the United States, about 60,000 — only 7% — are hand selected each year. So, when consumers peruse the list, they can rest assured they are choosing from among the best providers available.  

That assurance cannot be underestimated. Findings from a 2013 study published in the  New England Journal of Medicine  found that surgeons with higher peer ratings are three times less likely to encounter post-surgical complications, compared with surgeons with lower peer ratings.  

How the List is Developed  

Each year, Castle Connolly sends a survey to tens of thousands of medical doctors (MDs) and doctors of osteopathy (DOs), asking them to nominate a peer to the list. The survey process is anonymous and confidential; Each survey recipient is assigned a unique access code to the nomination website to ensure that doctors do not nominate themselves.   Castle Connolly also reaches out to leading specialists, clinical department chairs and medical affairs executives at hospitals nationwide, asking them to nominate physicians.  

Once a doctor is nominated, Castle Connolly’s physician-led research teams evaluate the candidate’s:  

Outcomes history, procedure volume, access to the latest treatment technologies and participation in research also are considered, to the extent information on these metrics is available.  

Once selected and approved, each Top Doctor submits a comprehensive professional biography for inclusion with the listing.  

The Top Doctors list is updated annually, and can be revised between yearly updates if key information in the physician’s biography changes, or if his or her status changes. Likewise, Castle Connolly continually reviews and modifies its Top Doctor review process based on changing health care trends and emerging research.     

The Top Orthopaedic Doctors list can help patients find a surgeon who will target their pain and jumpstart their road to recovery. Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Many Excellent Doctors in New Jersey  

But while Castle Connolly’s Top Doctor list is a valuable doctor-search tool supported by scientific evidence, it is not a good doctor/bad doctor litmus. If the doctor you are considering is not on the list, that does not mean the practitioner isn’t an excellent physician.   

In addition to using the Top Doctors list, prospective patients should consider:  

Following is the Top Orthopaedic Doctors list for 2021, sorted by county:

Natacha Falcon, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Michael Falcone, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

E. Jeffrey Pope, Orthopaedic Surgery

Uri Adler, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Adeel Ahmad, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Jose Alonso, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Allison Averill, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Steve Aydin, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Elizabeth Baker, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Rebecca Brown, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Paul Jendrek, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Ruby Kim, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Howard Liss, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Donald Liss, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Jeff Pavell, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Christine Pfisterer, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Peter Schmaus, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Seth Schran, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Kara Suche, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Philip Tasca, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Jerald Zimmerman, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Theodore Conliffe, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Madhuri Dholakia, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Connie Domingo, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

George Young, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

R Robert Franks, Sports Medicine

Tae Won Kim, Orthopaedic Surgery

Jerrold Friedman, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Kavita Gupta, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Barbara Benevento, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Shailendra Hajela, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Michael Stubblefield, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

W. Thomas Gutowski, Orthopaedic Surgery

Dorota Gribbin, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Gautam Kothari, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

David Brown, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Michele Fantasia, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Brian Greenwald, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Gerard Malanga, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Gregory Mulford, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

John Shumko, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Debra Ibrahim, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Robert D’Agostini, Orthopaedic Surgery

Mingi Choi, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Michael Armento, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Katherine Bentley, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Martin Diamond, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Naomi Gold , Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Nathaniel Sutain, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Christopher Castro, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Michael Gutkin, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

To find a doctor in a specific town and/or specialty, use Castle Connolly’s search tool here.

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Jersey’s Best. Subscribe here for in-depth access to everything that makes the Garden State great.

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