What is the Top Doctors Database?

The Top Doctors Database is a searchable database of more than 1,800 physicians in the Washington area. You can search for physicians by specialty or by neighborhood/city. Or you can see if a doctor is in the database by searching by his/her last name.

We provide basic information--including the insurance each physician accepts--for every doctor in our database. The accuracy of the database is maintained throughout the year by the Washingtonian's editorial staff.

Read More About Our Top Doctors List

How We Created The Top Doctors Directory

We sent questionnaires to 7,000 randomly selected local physicians asking them what doctors, in each of 40 medical specialties, they would send members of their families to. More than 1,300 responded.

Together they named thousands of physicians in the Washington/Baltimore area. In this searchable directory are those who received the greatest number of recommendations within their specialties, with adjustments for geographic distribution.

The specialties included are those in which patients generally have a choice of doctor. Anesthesiologists, emergency-room physicians, and diagnostic radiologists, for example, aren't listed because patients typically don't select them.

Doctors were asked to name pediatric practitioners in most specialties, and physicians who concentrate on treating children within their specialties are identified as such.