Who is the best doctor? 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️👨‍💻👩‍💻🤷‍♀️

Question

Let's say you have to go see a specialist in the USA for a rare disease or illness. 
How do you determine/select who your doctor is? 
Is there a place you look first? 
What places do you look at? 
How do you know the doctor is the best or the best for you?

Answer

Recommendations from those in the medical field.

Answer

I am lucky enough to live in the Boston area..... we have some of the best doctors and Hospitals in the country so I know I'm always in good hands!

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Depending on the illness and the prevalence of doctors in that speciality, you might not have much of a choice. I'd probably go for an initial visit and see how comfortable I am with that doctor. If I'm not, and there's other alternatives, I'd look at someone else.

Answer

Luckily, I personally haven't needed to see a specialist outside of my primary & obgyn. But I did have to go through finding a specialist for my son when he needed eye surgery. 
We first were recommended an ophthalmologist by his pediatrician. We had the initial first visit, and the doctor never even examined my sons eyes. Right there I knew he wouldn't be the doctor to do any sort of procedure for my son. Later, I called his insurance company, and had them e-mail me a list of all ophthalmologists in his network. 
I literally called every single one of the 7 doctors to find out their credentials and years of practice. I then called the leading children's hospital in my city as well as the surgical park center (all of the doctors performed surgery out of both locations) to find out who they recommended as their best surgeon for the procedure. Both locations praised just one doctor- Dr. Ann E. Ballen. 
So, I got to google and searched for reviews, recommendations, past patient experiences a, etc. I felt bey my confident in deciding to schedule an appointment for her to see my son. I definitely didn't regret it. She was patient and kind with not only my son, but with my husband and I. She spent time explaining the procedure to us in terms we would best understand. And at the time of the surgery, she reassured us all would be well.
I may not have done as much research as someone would if they had a life threatening illness, but I did the best I could with the knowledge I had. Which was very little!

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Luckily I haven't had to see a specialist in years. Under my previous insurance I didn't get a choice. I had to have a specific referral from my GP in order for them to cover it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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I choose by whoever accepts my insurance and is closest. I had to have my surgery done at a place that's an hour away, when there is a great hospital just fifteen minutes from my house. Other that that, I go by reputation and Google reviews lol

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There are also multiple review sites for doctors. Facebook groups for specific illnesses sometimes have a list of recommended doctors in their files section.

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I live in Cleveland so I have 3 major hospital systems here, one is one of the best in the country. I can safely assume almost anyone I see at the Cleveland Clinic will be okay. A lot of the specialists seem overworked. 
My mom's nephrologist seems like he works about 70 hours a week. He had office hours, rounds at the hospital daily, goes to dialysis centers every week to see patients... it's insane. All of my specialists seem overworked. I can barely get my GI doctor to call me back. 
Anyways, I usually ask my PCP for a specialist.  Then I ask friends. Then if I'm still not confident I look online to see where they went to school and see if they have any bad ratings.

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Go to Boston- best dr's in the world are there

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I use recommendations from those with similar issues, maybe from FB groups, etc. I also Google extensively, and use vitals.com and other doctor rating sites to "backgound check" them first.