In the Tampa Bay area, nearly a third (32 percent) of the physicians who made the 2008 Best Doctors in America list work at USF Health.

And when you include the generous volunteer faculty members (those who teach medical students several times each year) and College of Medicine alumni in private practice locally, the numbers go up even more – 62 percent of the list has a connection with USF Health.

The annual list for Best Doctors in America is compiled from surveys of physicians asking them who they would go to for treatment in their specialty. The result is a national listing of 30,000 physicians in more than 40 specialties.

This year, the list included 508 physicians from the Tampa Bay area. Of that 161 are full-time, courtesy or OPS physicians for USF. The list also included 111 physicians who are volunteer faculty members for USF and 42 alumni of the USF College of Medicine (some of the physicians in other categories are also alumni but were counted only in their faculty category). That brings the total to 314 physicians (62 percent) who have a connection with USF Health.

“Once again, the Best Doctors in America list shows that our faculty physicians have a huge impact on the healthcare of families in this community,” said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, CEO for USF Health and dean of the College of Medicine.

“These doctors touch every one of our key mission areas: education, healthcare and research,” Dr. Klasko said.

USF Health boasts the area’s largest medical practice, with 332 physicians treating this region’s residents. They see nearly 400,000 patients each year in dozens of medical facilities – large and small – along the Florida gulf coast.

Here is a list of physicians included in the 2008 Best Doctors in America who have a connection to USF Health. Some physicians earned spots in more than one specialty, so this list will total more.

Story by Sarah A. Worth, USF Health Communications