181 Doctors from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are Listed in Best Doctors in America®

December 13, 2007

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The 2007 update of the Best Doctors in America® database includes 181 physicians at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The Medical Center also ranks 32nd in the nation for the number of physicians listed in Castle Connolly’s new 7th edition of America’s Top Doctors®.
In the Best Doctors list, 85 percent of the doctors listed from Forsyth County are from Wake Forest Baptist. Of the 262 doctors listed from Forsyth and Guilford counties, 70 percent are from Wake Forest Baptist. These included 41 pediatric specialists at Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest Baptist. This year there were a total of 1,250 doctors listed from North Carolina.
“It is an honor to have our physicians achieve such prestigious recognition,” said William Applegate, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P., interim president of Wake Forest University Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine. “Our organization is known for excellence so it is nice to see this list grow as more of our doctors become renowned for such excellence.”
Best Doctors has built a database of more than 40,000 of the best physicians in America. It develops the list by a peer survey that asks: “If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them?”
The survey takes place biennially and is completed by physicians included in the Best Doctors database. Specialists complete ballots on other doctors in their own and related specialties.
Best Doctors Inc. was founded in 1989 by physicians affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Their goal was to provide greater access to dependable, high quality medical information and care for individuals with serious illness and injuries. Today Best Doctors is a leading resource for patients, families and physicians seeking expert medical resources and guidance to treat illnesses and injuries of all kinds.
America’s Top Doctors, published by Castle Connolly, is a guide to the top 1 percent of specialists and subspecialists in the nation. Wake Forest Baptist had 30 of the 31 doctors that were listed in Forsyth County. Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. surveys tens of thousands of doctors nationwide for nominations of the best physicians in their specialty. Fewer than 10 percent of America’s hospitals have doctors who are listed.

Wake Forest Baptist physicians included in the Best Doctors in America database are:


Anesthesiology: Loren Bauman, Randy W. Calicott, James C. Crews, Robert D’Angelo, James C. Eisenach, J.C. Gerancher, Leanne Groban, Jeffrey Scott Kelly, Pamela Nagle, Patricia H. Petrozza, Michael A. Olympio, John E. Reynolds, Douglas Ririe, Raymond Clyde Roy, Roger L. Royster, Phillip E. Scuderi, Timothy E. Smith, Robert S. Weller and Deborah Whelan.

Cardiovascular Disease: Robert Joseph Applegate, David Fitzgerald, Paul Kirkman, William Little and Killian C. Robinson, Tony William Simmons.

Dermatology: Steven R. Feldman, Alan B. Fleischer Jr., Joseph L. Jorizzo, Amy J. McMichael, Phil M. Williford and Gil Yosipovitch.

Endocrinology and Metabolism: K. Patrick Ober.

Family Medicine: Frank S. Celestino, David S. Jackson Jr., Mark P. Knudson, Richard W. Lord, Sara L. Neal and Susan J. Williams.

Gastroenterology: John Baillie and Kenneth L. Koch.

Geriatric Medicine: Jeff D. Williamson.

Hand Surgery: Anthony DeFranzo, Andrew Koman and Joseph Molnar.

Internal Medicine (General): William B. Applegate, Peter Lichstein, William Y. Rice III and Peter Robie.

Infectious Disease: Kevin P. High, James E. Peacock and P. Samuel Pegram Jr.

Medical Genetics: Tamison Jewett.

Medical Oncology and Hematology: David Hurd, Glenn J. Lesser, Susan A. Melin, Bayard L. Powell and Frank M. Torti.

Nephrology: Patricia L. Adams, Anthony Bleyer, John M. Burkart, Thomas Durward DuBose Jr., Barry I. Freedman and Michael V. Rocco.

Neurological Surgery: Charles Branch, Steven S. Glazier and John A. Wilson.

Neurology: James B. Caress, David S. Lefkowitz and Charles H. Tegeler IV.

Obstetrics and Gynecology: Joseph McDonald Ernest, Margaret A. Harper, Samuel S. Lentz, David C. Merrill and Brigitte E. Miller.

Ophthalmology: J. Brent Bond, Paul Dickinson, Craig M. Greven, Timothy J. Martin, M. Madison Slusher, Keith Walter, Richard G. Weaver Jr. and R. Patrick Yeatts.

Orthopaedic Surgery: Walton W. Curl, L. Andrew Koman, Gary G. Poehling, Jeffrey Shilt, William G. Ward and Lawrence X. Webb.

Otolaryngology: J. Dale Browne, Neal David Goldman, Daniel Kirse, Brian L. Matthews, John S. May, W. Frederick McGuirt Sr. and Christopher Albert Sullivan.

Pathology: Abbott Julian Garvin and Omar P. Sangueza.

Pediatric Specialist: Jon S. Abramson, Steven Block, Michael L. Coates (Family Medicine), Wesley Covitz, Robert G. Dillard, Laurence B. Givner, Karl Karlson, Thomas Williams McLean, Shashi Kumar Nagaraj, Thomas A. Nakagawa, Michael O’Shea, Karen H. Raines, Kelly Rouster Stevens, Bruce K. Rubin, Hernan Sabio, Robert P. Schwartz, Avinash K. Shetty, Sara H. Sinal, Joseph A. Skelton, Joseph R. Tobin (Anesthesiology) and Lisa Washburn.

Pediatrics (General): Kathi J. Kemper, Daniel Krowchuk, Michael R. Lawless, Mark A. Pashayan and Sara H. Sinal

Plastic Surgery: Louis Charles Argenta, Lisa R. David and Malcolm W. Marks.

Psychiatry: Stephen I. Kramer, W. Vaughn McCall and Donald W. Peters.

Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine: Norman E. Adair, Eugene R. Bleecker, John Conforti, Jill A. Musika Ohar and Stephen P. Peters.

Radiation Oncology: A. William Blackstock Jr., Kathryn M. Greven and Edward G. Shaw.

Radiology: Robert E. Bechtold, Michael A. Bettmann, Jonathan Burdette, John Jeffrey Carr, Caroline Chiles, David J. Di Santis, Raymond B. Dyer, Allen D. Elster, Rita Freimanis, Thomas S. Harle, Leon Lenchik, Nadine Maryanne Lesko, John R. Leyendecker, Kerry M. Link, Joseph A. Maldjian, Dixon M. Moody, Padraig Pearse Morris, Michael Oliphant, Edward V. Staab, Daniel W. Williams III and Ronald Jay Zagoria.

Sleep Medicine: W. Vaughn McCall.

Surgery: David A. Albertson, Kimberley J. Hansen, Russell Howerton, J. Wayne Meredith, George W. Plonk, Thomas Pranikoff, Jeffrey Rogers, Robert J. Stratta, Charles S. Turner, Gregory S. Waters and Carl Westcott.

Thoracic Surgery: John W. Hammon Jr., Michael Hines and Neal D. Kon.

Urology: Dean George Assimos, Anthony Atala, Gopal H. Badlani, Gordon A. McLorie and John J. Smith III.


Wake Forest Baptist physicians included in the 7th edition of America’s Top Doctors are:

Dermatology: Joseph Jorizzo

Hand Surgery: L. Andrew Koman

Hematology: Bayard Powell

Infectious Disease: Paul Pegram

Interventional Cardiology: Robert Applegate

Medical Oncology: Frank Torti

Neurological Surgery: Charles Branch Jr., Stephen Tatter and John Wilson

Orthopaedic Surgery: Walton Curl, Gary Poehling, William Ward and Lawrence Webb

Pediatric Endocrinology: Robert Schwartz

Pediatric Gastroenterology: Ivor Hill

Pediatric Infectious Disease: Laurence Givner

Plastic Surgery: Louis Charles Argenta and Joseph Molnar

Psychiatry: W. Vaughn McCall

Radiation Oncology: Edward Shaw

Surgery: David Albertson, Edward Levine and Robert Stratta

Thoracic Surgery: John Hammon

Urology: Dean Assimos and Anthony Atala

Vascular & Interventional Radiology: Michael Bettmann

Vascular Surgery: Kimberley Hansen

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Media contact: Bonnie Davis, bdavis@wfubmc.edu; or Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-4587.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.


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