Top Docs

Silicon Valley's Best Physicians, Selected by their Peers

IN 1986, GREGORY WHITE SMITH, AN AUTHOR AND Harvard-educated attorney, was given three to six months to live. Despair set in, and despite a second opinion, the end loomed near. That is, until Smith encountered, of all things, a thespian‹Charles Grodin, actor and talk-show host, who had successfully helped his ex-wife stave off breast cancer. Smith recalls Grodin's advice. "No one's got the last word. There are all kinds of things out there, and you've got to take the initiative and find them." So he did. In the process, he discovered an alternative procedure that saved his life and inspired him to compile the companion piece to his and his partner's stock-in-trade, The Best Lawyers in America. To find the best doctors, Smith's firm, Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, South Carolina, asked those most likely to Know-the doctors themselves. The process begins with a single question-"If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty and you couldn't treat them yourself, to whom would you refer them?" From there, the healers are quizzed further about their responses, consensuses are reached, confidential comments are solicited and reviewed and the list is refined by broadening and deepening the voting pool to eliminate biases. While the following may represent the Valley's best, switching to another doctor based solely on inclusion in this list is ill-advised. If you have a physician whose judgment and expertise you trust, why change?