Frequently Asked Questionsfor Physicians
- How is the list of physicians in the search results generated on ApexMD?
- How do you decide the order in which to show physicians in the ApexMD search results?
- What geographic regions are covered by ApexMD?
- What are the definitions of Specialty, Subspecialty, Area of Concentration and Special Interests on ApexMD?
- How did you decide which medical centers to feature on ApexMD?
- Why has ApexMD chosen to focus predominantly on tertiary care and academic medical centers?
- How can I create a profile on ApexMD?
- Do I need to be a medical doctor in order to have a profile on ApexMD?
- Can an administrative person in my office create a doctor profile on my behalf?
- Can I be listed in more than one specialty on ApexMD?
- How do physicians become affiliated with specific medical centers on ApexMD?
- Does ApexMD verify physician qualifications, credentials and certification?
- Do Physicians have to pay to be listed on ApexMD? Do they pay a referral fee? How do you make money?
- Can I pay to have my profile listed at the top of the search results for a specific disease or procedure?
How is the list of physicians in the search results generated on ApexMD?
See our How Does it Work? section on our FAQs main page for a complete description of the ApexMD search process. Top
What geographic regions are covered by ApexMD?
We intend to cover all regions of the United States with at least one medical center in each region by the end of 2009. We currently have no plans to profile physicians practicing outside of the United States. Top
How do you decide the order in which to show physicians in the ApexMD search results?
Physicians are grouped by specialty and ordered within their specialty by Match Score, from highest to lowest. For information on how our Match Scores are generated see the How Does it Work? section on our FAQs main page. When there is a tie of Match Scores then the physicians with the same score are presented in alphabetical order by last name. Top
What are the definitions of Specialty, Subspecialty, Area of Concentration and Special Interests on ApexMD?
Please note that ApexMD is not a credentialing system and makes no claim as to the abilities, credentials, specialties, subspecialties or any particular special interests of any physician listed on ApexMD.com or in our search results. Always check with your hospital or the doctor directly to confirm their qualifications prior to seeking medical treatment. For information about physician board certification visit the American Board of Medical Specialties.
Specialty: After 4 years of medical school most physicians go on to residency training in a specialty. Accredited programs are full-time and last from 3-5 years and lead to board-eligibility, which means that the physician can take an examination to become “board certified” in the specialty. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) certifies physicians in 145 specialties and subspecialties. Visit the ABMS website for more information about the services ABMS provides. Physicians on ApexMD are categorized by specialty and this is generally, though not always, indicative of the completion of a residency, fellowship or board certification in the given specialty. Some subspecialties of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics are so important and separate from their parent specialties that we at ApexMD have decided to go with common parlance and describe them as specialties too -- cardiology, endocrinology and gastroenterology are examples.
Subspecialty or Area of Concentration: After specialty training in a residency, physicians can elect to continue on to subspecialty training for an additional 1-3 years. Subspecialty training may lead to ABMS certification but many subspecialties do not have ABMS member board certification processes and thus there is a wide variation in the application of standard exams and accreditation programs across subspecialties. Within specialties, sometimes physicians pursue further specialization that does not necessarily require a dedicated training program. Some institutions may offer formal training where others provide on-the-job training. Also some physicians tailor their practices to fit into a niche. These various pathways occur commonly at academic medical centers. We at ApexMD call these niche subspecialties, ‘areas of concentration’, and we group them within our subspecialty category for ease of presentation. An example of an area of concentration would be the focus on 'breast cancer' within the specialty of medical oncology, or 'inflammatory bowel disease' within gastroenterology.
Special Interests: Special Interests are generally specific diseases or procedures for which the physician has indicated a focus within their practice either on their publicly available biography or by visiting ApexMD and indicating special interests on their ApexMD profile. For example, a doctor with a specialty in Neurology and a subspecialty of Vascular Neurology might indicate a special interest in the condition 'stroke'. A subsequent search by a user on ApexMD for 'stroke' would indicate this doctor as being highly likely to be relevant for stroke. There is a dilutive effect to a doctor listing a large number of special interests either directly on ApexMD or on another online biography that ApexMD has crawled. All other things being equal, a physician with dozens of special interest will earn approximately the same Match Score for each of their special interest conditions or procedures as a colleague that indicated no special interests. Top
How did you decide which medical centers to feature on ApexMD?
At ApexMD, we have focused predominantly on profiling physicians at tertiary care and academic medical centers. The medical centers featured on our site comprise the majority of hospitals on the lists of top medical centers as presented in rankings such as those in the US News and World Report list of top hospitals. Top
Why has ApexMD chosen to focus predominantly on tertiary care and academic medical centers?
ApexMD is designed to be a search tool used by patients, physicians or other medical professionals to assist them in the process of finding relevant physicians that are highly focused on specific diseases, particularly rare, potentially lethal acute or disabling chronic conditions. ApexMD has chosen to focus on profiling doctors at tertiary care or academic medical centers because, due to the nature of these centers, physicians at these hospitals are able and encouraged to become highly specialized or subspecialized on a few particular diseases or an area of emphasis within a specialty. These physicians can often be the best source for insight or a second opinion, particularly for rare or difficult-to-treat conditions. There are many highly specialized physicians that focus on one or a small number of procedures, particularly surgical procedures, that are not affilated with a tertiary care or academic medical center. We hope, in time, to add physicians from these non-tertiary care medical centers that are focused on specific procedures and we hope that in the meantime physicians at these centers will come to ApexMD themselves and complete a profile. Top
How can I create a profile on ApexMD?
Visit our Physician Sign-Up page for complete instructions on creating a physician profile on ApexMD. Top
Do I need to be a medical doctor in order to have a profile on ApexMD?
Currently, we are only indexing and accepting profiles for US-based physicians that are Doctors of Medicine (MD or foreign equivalent) or Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO). Top
Can an administrative person in my office create a doctor profile on my behalf?
Yes, an administrative person or other representative may create a profile on your behalf. However, a verification email will be sent to the email address/username that is provided and the email account must be validated by the email account holder. The domain name in the email addresses that are provided as both the physician login and the administrative person must be the same domain and must be the official domain address for the physician's hospital or group practice. Use of gmail, hotmail or other free service email addresses is likely to delay or prevent verification of your profile and you will not be listed on ApexMD. The phone number provided for appointments and the phone number provided as the contact number for the adminstrator that completed the profile on behalf of the physician must be verifiable through online sources such as a company website as well as offline sources such as phone directories. Top
Can I be listed in more than one specialty on ApexMD?
No, even if you are board certified in two ABMS specialties and completed two residencies, you must select one specialty as your primary for listing purposes on ApexMD. In most cases, you will be able to select your other board specialty as an area of concentration or subspecialty. This will still result in relevant diseases or procedures being associated with you. For example, a doctor that is board certified in pediatrics and surgery might select surgery as their specialty and then pediatric surgery as their subspecialty. For more information on the ApexMD profile creation process read our physician profile instructions. Top
How do physicians become affiliated with specific medical centers on ApexMD?
We confirm affiliation with a medical center through a biography listing on the medical center website doctor directory. In other words, a physician MUST BE LISTED in the online doctor directory for any medical center for which they wish to have an affiliation on ApexMD. We are sorry that we can not make any exceptions to this requirement. Top
Does ApexMD verify physician qualifications, credentials and certification?
ApexMD does not verify qualifications, credentials or certifications of any physician listed on this website. Always check with your hospital or the doctor directly to confirm their qualifications prior to seeking medical treatment. The physician profiles on ApexMD frequently provide a link to the physician's biography at the medical center where they are affiliated. These biographies occasionally contain information regarding board certifications. You can verify board certification for specific physicians by searching at the American Board of Medical Specialties website. To check if your physician has received any state medical board disciplinary actions, you can visit the website of the Federation of State Medical Boards and get a report for a fee. Many state medical boards provide a free reports of disciplinary actions against any physicians licensed in that state. Top
Do Physicians have to pay to be listed on ApexMD? Do they pay a referral fee? How do you make money?
Physicians do not have to pay to be listed on ApexMD. They can list a profile for free. Physicians do not pay a referral fee for any consultation or appointment that is made as a result of a search on ApexMD. We make money through the placement of highly targeted advertisements that attempt to be relevant to each disease or procedure. These advertisements generally appear across the top or right side or our search results and are clearly marked as sponsorships, advertisements or Ads by Google. Top
Can I pay to have my profile listed at the top of the search results for a specific disease or procedure?
No, physician's are ordered within their specialty by Match Score, our proprietary scoring algorithm. Please see the How Does it Work? section on our FAQs main page for a description of our Match Score algorithm or the Physician Instructions page for more information on how to build an optimal physician profile. Neither physicians nor medical centers can pay to have a higher Match Score for any disease or procedure. Top
