The problem for me as a reasonably educated patient (physics PhD, done some work in biological physics, amateur knowledge of medical literature which I enjoy reading) is that the "top" academically performing doctors leave a public track record of their expertise in the form of academic publications I can go through and evaluate. I fully realize that this doesn't necessarily (or even often) correlate with practical skills that determine patient outcomes, but at least it's a metric I can look at. With most doctors, there is no such metric, so I'm essentially playing the lottery. The salient question then becomes whether it's statistically better to play the lottery or go for the academically prominent doctors, and I'm not aware of any decent studies exploring that. Do you have a recommendation on how to approach that issue from the patient point of view?
You're right that there's no easy way to pick a physician. But when I or one of my loved ones is in the hospital, my only requirement for the hospital staff is that they communicate well with me. If they don't, I politely ask that they be removed from me/our care. I make this requirement clear up front (in a non-demanding kind of way; you don't want to piss people off or make it look like you're a difficult patient/family member).
Also, for every patient and family that I meet, I explain right away that the only promise I make is that I will be honest, upfront, and clear when I'm talking to them; that I will give them my best effort. This has served me very well and I've won numerous local accolades because of it. It also softens the blow when something goes wrong, even when it's my fault. When I was a resident, I frequently had patient's demanding to speak with me instead of the attending because they trusted me more.
Keep in mind that I'm a hospitalist/intensivist, so I don't know if things will necessarily generalize to the primary care/office setting.
This may be a shot in the dark but try looking for doctors who interact and are cheerful(to their patients). The referral thing between the patients is very strong so more patients will come and will feel good which works as a catalyst(Both the parties will have a good amount of dopamine flowing).
And eventually the variety and number of patients will increase and so the doctor will have more practice and become better!
In the far off rural areas where connectivity is almost nil,The doctors rarely go to the hospitals and the doctor's assistant does more work,becoming at par with the doctors in a few years.
