Is there any interest in making a list of primary PCa docs members have used and trust?

In another thread, Michguy said:

I thought it might be useful to use this thread, or similar one, to also allow people to name their surgeon (or, perhaps, radiation oncologist). This could be particularly helpful for newbies looking for qualified, experienced medical help. It might even be useful for users to rate their surgeons here somehow. Everything you read says you should get the most experienced physician, especially in the case of a robotic surgeon, yet there is no real registry or database to allow someone to search for a qualified individual. I don't mean to hijack this thread, but perhaps here or somewhere else, this forum could provide a real service to newcomers searching for physicians offering treatment solutions in particular regions of the country.

and

Maybe we should ask the question in a separate thread entitled "Should this forum maintain a surgeon database?" or something similar. Perhaps not enough readers check out the "Where are people from?" thread on a regular basis and are missing the opportunity to respond. (...or else, maybe there really is no interest).

Four people responded on that thread. Let's talk...what do you think? I envision any list as similar to the 'where are you from' one with maybe the members name, his doc, and their location. I can't imagine the mods would want to get into maintaining a really detailed data base.

Being the accounting and statistics nerd that I am, I would love to see a well maintained listing of good surgeons, good oncologists, good radiation drs, and even good hospitals. If you look at the list of where we are all from, the collective information would cover a good part of the US and elsewhere. It least it would give a new person or a newly PC dx, a starting point with health care providers that our own people could vouch for through their experiences.

I was thinking of something relatively simple: location, doc name, hospital name, specialty (robotic, open, radiation onc., etc.), rating (maybe 1 to 5 stars), and perhaps a very small comment. If everyone here did that, this would be the first and only (to my knowledge) publicly available prostate cancer clinician registry with patient feedback. I think it would be particularly useful for newly diagnosed patients who have no idea what to do or where to go next.

Well, we sure don't want to get into a good, bad, or watch deal here. I sure don't, let me say. If we begin that, it will just spiral out more and more and become a completely different thing. I agree we might could do some kind of objective list, but do we really want to get into grading them, other than saying this is my doctor and I am satisfied with his/her work?

I like the suggestion that people just add their doctor and his/her location to a line under their name in their signature in the Signature thread. That way the treatment plan, Journey and recovery is all in one post. It would be easiest to keep current and new folks can easily add theirs to it as they come on board.

Michguy's suggestion of a thread that people adds to would do, also. BUT, it would have to be edited heavily to keep extra comments, discussions and such from breaking out, to keep it managable. The tendency is to turn almost any thread into a chat, instead of sticking to the subject, which is fine for most threads, I'm not complaining, mind you...lol. People would have to understand and accept that the thread would be kept cleaned out and be just the info that it was formed for.

Any grading system would be easy fodder for a lawsuit, even on an internet based site such as this. And any grading would be so subjective for starters. I think the value in posting information is the range and variety of urologogists, radiationolgists, oncologists, surgeons, hopsitals, etc that have been used by all of us. It would be an encouragement and a good starting point to anyone new to PC or the newly dx. We cover a lot of states in the US, and some have used resources out of their own states, which adds to the list, and then we have those from some of the Canadian provinces and elsewhere.

James C. said...
Any grading system would open the owner of HW to liability. The original request was for a simple list of members name, doctors name, and location. Just a basic list. Anything beyond that raises several problems.

When this thread started I wondered about HW liability. When you mention grading good or bad that could bring in the lawyers. I'm not even sure a personal recommendation list wouldn't either. The safest for HW would be kind of like the location list now, with members here willing to take it offline from here with their personal recommendations to people in their areas. Of course a member here can still make a post asking about their doctor and if anyone had any experience with them or a clinic/hospital. Whatever you decide run it past the powers to be at HW first.

Lawyers?? Don't lawyers get prostate cancer? If there are any lawyers on the forum, now would be a good time to speak up. If we don't hear from any, then I think we've discovered a new prostate cancer treatment option: become a lawyer!

When I first encountered this disease a big source of anxiety was trying to find a decent doc who did Da vinci AND that my HMO would pay for. Eventually it all worked out, but I think it would be a great idea for everyone to at least say who their doctor was and where he was located so that new members can see a few of the doctors out there. Even if it's just in each individual's signature I still think that would work............