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FeedTop Doctors 2010
Local physicians pick their favorites in 21 specialties.
(page 1 of 7)
With help from the area’s health systems, scores of doctors throughout Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties took part in our annual poll. So how does this year’s list differ from all the rest? Well, for one, we’ve added eight new categories, giving several specialties long-overdue recognition. Hats off to all the winners—especially the 21 “best of the best” profiled below.
For the rest of this year's nominees, click here.
Dermatology: Dr. Christine Egan
Dermatology Ltd., 101 Chesley Drive, Suite 100, Media; (610) 566-7111, dermatologyltd.com
Undergraduate education: University of Scranton
Medical school: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Residency: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Years in practice: 14
Worth noting: Dr. Christine Egan was on a dermatology rotation in her fourth year as a medical student when she decided to change her specialty. “We were asked to see a sick, young woman in the intensive care unit, and the attending dermatologist just walked into the room, looked at her rash and, in five minutes, made the diagnosis,” says Egan. “He started therapies and saved her life before any testing came back. He simply looked at her skin and knew exactly what was going on.” Egan was so impressed she decided to be a dermatologist instead of a reconstructive plastic surgeon. “Although we use the tests to confirm, we often just look and make a diagnosis—and that’s pretty cool,” she says.
Endocrinology: Dr. Deebeanne Tavani
Lankenau Hospital, MOB East, Suite 463, 100 Lancaster Ave., Wynnewood; (610) 896-5170, mainlinehealth.org/lankenau
Undergraduate education: La Salle University
Medical school: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Residency: Lehigh Valley Hospital Center
Years in practice: 18
Worth noting: When a resident called Dr. Deebeanne Tavani over a long holiday weekend about an elderly patient who’d sunk into a coma, she didn’t wait until Monday to visit the ICU. Tavani talked to the patient’s wife of 40 years, ran initial lab studies, made a clinical diagnosis of pituitary apoplexy (acute hemorrhage or infarction of a pituitary gland), and ultimately transferred the man to Jefferson for surgery. “The patient was awake and alert the next day, watching a baseball game in his room,” says Tavani, who’s the system chief of endocrinology for Main Line Health. “It makes you think about doing the right thing—seeing the patient, making sure you know the exact history.”
Internal Medicine: Dr. Alan Zweben
Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Ambulatory Care Pavilion, 1 Medical Center Blvd., Suite 532, Upland; (610) 447-6788, crozer.org
Undergraduate education: Stony Brook University
Medical school: Stony Brook University School of Medicine
Residency: Pennsylvania Hospital
Years in practice: 26
Worth noting: There are few dull moments in the emergency room, so it’s no surprise that quick-thinking doctors like Dr. Alan Zweben are in their element when forced to juggle multiple patients at one time. “That was the moment where I knew for sure that I was ready to do this, without a sort of daddy or mommy there to hold my hand,” he says. “One thing I didn’t know about being a doctor at the time was how many decisions we make every day.”
