Top Doctors 2009

Local practitioners pick the best in 13 specialties.

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With help from the area’s health systems, we polled doctors in Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties, asking them to pick their favorites in 13 specialties. The result? Our biggest list ever—some 500 of the area’s best practitioners. Those who garnered the most votes are profiled below.
 

Orthopedics: Dr. Peter Sharkey

Rothman Institute at Riddle Memorial Hospital, 1118 W. Baltimore Pike, HCC IV, Third Floor, Media, (610) 480-6040

Education: SUNY College of Health Sciences, Syracuse, N.Y.

Residency: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Worth knowing: “I was truly shocked that this 40-something-year-old man was in a wheelchair,” says Dr. Peter Sharkey, recalling a patient who came to him with chronic pain in his lower back.

Prior treatment had led to multiple injections, physical therapy and a reliance on prescription drugs. “He became addicted to narcotics, lost his job and was now on the verge of losing his wife,” says Sharkey.

Upon closer examination, Sharkey discovered the problem had nothing to do with his back. The patient was suffering from severe arthritis that could be remedied with a hip replacement. “Six weeks after the surgery, I initially didn’t recognize the patient,” says Sharkey. “He was off drugs and ready to return to work as a carpenter. His wife was jubilant.”
 

Family Practice:
Dr. Mitchell Kaminski

Family Physicians at Crozer, Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Vivacqua Pavilion, 1 Medical Center Blvd., Suite 443, Upland, (610) 619-7470

Education: University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor

Residency: Michigan State University

Worth knowing: When choosing his specialties, Dr. Mitchell Kaminski knew he’d be happiest treating all ages. “My patients range from newborns to people in their 90s,” says Kaminski, who is chairman of family medicine at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Outside the office, Kaminski catches up with patients while exercising at Crozer’s Healthplex Sports Club, where he serves on the medical advisory board. “Every time I get thanked for something, I realize I got equal or more out of the experience—and from the person who’s thanking me,” he says. “I feel really fortunate.”
 

Obstetrics & Gynecology:
Dr. Nancy Roberts

Main Line Perinatal, Lankenau Hospital, MOB East, Suite 353, 100 Lancaster Ave., Wynnewood,
(610) 649-9021

Education: Jefferson Medical College

Residency: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Worth knowing: “I develop a very close relationship with my patients,” says Dr. Nancy Roberts, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. “I’m honest with them, and they know that I’ll do what I say.”
 

Roberts recounts the story of one woman who credited the doctor’s receptive demeanor and decisive approach with saving her baby. “She had left her previous doctors because they weren’t listening to her when she told them she thought there was a problem,” says Roberts. “I made the ultrasound diagnosis of the problem, and then became her advocate to make sure the problem was addressed.”
  

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