Welcome to our first Top Doctors issue. Starting on page 51, you’ll find the names of 101 of the best physicians in our area, along with seven that have been singled out for brief profiles.
This is a popular topic with magazines like ours around the country, and we’ve actually talked about running it for a while. But with all of the good physicians in our area, how do you choose?
Then we learned about Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., a health-care research company that has been producing lists of top doctors for magazines around the country since 1991. Their standards of measurement are thorough and include what I believe is the best way to elicit information regarding excellence — they ask other doctors and those in related professions, such as hospital administrators, who they think are the best and which ones they would be most likely to turn to if they or their family members need a referral for a particular kind of doctor.
Of course, you’ll ask, “Are these the only good doctors around?” Naturally, the answer is no. But the men and women cited in this issue have been identified by their peers as examples of the best the medical profession has to offer. And it is in that spirit that we offer them here.
A year ago we ran a story that looked at the history of our towns using a series of short vignettes. It proved to be such a hit that we’re doing something like it again, only this time
we decided to use street signs for guidance. For example, who were some of the individuals or families whose names are now imprinted on our address labels? How did a street like Quaker Lane or Dancing Bear Lane get its name? Did anything exciting ever happen to make one street stand out in historical significance over another?
When we asked writer Beth Longware Duff, who authored last year’s piece, if she was ready to head back to the historical societies’ archives once again, she jumped at the opportunity. It seems as if our first project had simply whetted her appetite for this type of storytelling.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to the following people, without whom “Street Signs” would never have been written: Janet Lindstrom and Sharon Turo at the New Canaan Historical Society; Judy Groppa at the Darien Historical Society; Susan Gunn Bromley at the Norwalk Museum; Wendell Livingston and Lesley Korzennik at the Rowayton Historical Society. Presenting these offbeat looks at our past is fun for us and (we’ve been told) enjoyable for our readers, and we appreciate the efforts of these individuals to help make it happen.
A new year is now under way. We hope that 2008 will be good to all of you. See you next month.