I live near Buffalo NY. My father is 85 years old and in great health
except for his right hip. My father?s right hip need?s to be replaced.
I need to find the best Doctor to send him to. We have reviewed all of
the excellent information on www.hipreplacement.com. This excellent
website has a Surgeon-locator feature which produces a list of 44
surgeons within 100 miles of zip code 14141.

          US news and world report
www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/tophosp.htm has a feature
where you can sort hospitals by specialty. I clicked on Orthopedics
and they generate a wonderful list of the 100 best hospitals in that
specialty. The number five hospital is the Cleveland Clinic, Distance:
177.53 miles from my home. The Cleveland Clinic web site lists their
orthopedic surgeons and the credentials of each.

I need to find the best doctor for my father taking into account all factors.

1)	I want to rule out any surgeon under any kind of professional censure.

2)	I want to take into account the doctors malpractices history. For
example a surgeon with no lawsuits would be preferred to a surgeon
with many lawsuits.

3)	I want to rule out any surgeon whom does not specialize in hip
replacements. (To date my research indicates that most or all who
specialize in hips also do knees, I guess this is ok as long as
maximum expertise in hips can be proven.)

4)	I want a surgeon who does more of these operations than most of his
peers and whom can document superior results. Consider that it will be
necessary to answer; what is the average number of hip replacement?s
preformed by a surgeon with this specialty.

5)	The surgeon/hospital we select must have an especially good record
with regard to infection.

6)	 We want an orthopaedic surgeon who is "fellowship" Trained and who
has chose to limit His/her practice to those areas in which they are
most highly trained.

7)	If no local surgeon/hospital can be shown to be as good as the
Cleveland Clinic we are willing to go the 177 miles for this
procedure. However we still want a way to select among the surgeons
who work their.

8)	A surgeon who successfully uses minimally invasive techniques whenever
possible is to be preferred.

9)	The time the surgeon takes too complete the surgery is to be
considered. Less time under anesthesia equates to less risk.

10)	The researcher whom accepts this question should feel free to add
in other qualifiers which I may have over looked but should consider.

I am willing to consider the question answered when the researcher
provides a link to a pay site which makes the selection process
transparent and provides information on all the above factors. If a
good answer can be provided without the need for further payment to
another source a tip will be offered. Who is the best hip replacement
surgeon for my father? Thank you for your consideration of my
question.

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Clarification of Question by diverdon-ga on 26 Dec 2005 06:19 PST

My Father asked me to say that condition

"8)	A surgeon who successfully uses minimally invasive techniques whenever
possible is to be preferred."

is the most important condition to be met.

Being from Cleveland, I know that the Clinic is superior in many
fields.  If I couldn't find anything closer to my home (now 200 miles
from the Clinic) I know I wouldn't mind the trip to go there.  Good
luck - I know finding a surgeon is difficult.