San Diego Magazine / October 2004 / The Doctors are In

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The Doctors are In

I CAN’T EXPLAIN IT. Put a list of local doctors in a magazine, create a cover with a trustworthy-looking physician—or an artsy stethoscope—and watch newsstand sales soar. It happens every year. This isn’t just a San Diego trend. In our publishing niche—overseen by the City & Regional Magazine Association—“Top Docs” covers are annual best-sellers for city magazines all over the country.

We’re here—to large degree—to please. So here we go again. This time, the methodology for picking the doctors has changed. We partnered with the San Diego County Medical Society, which polled area physicians—both within and outside its membership. More than 2,000 doctors were asked to vote for the best—excluding themselves —in their specialty area.

Let me repeat. This is a peer-to-peer poll. The 300-plus doctors were picked by other doctors. Not by the staff of San Diego Magazine. Some of you who read this may actually put down the phone, drop your pen or erase the e-mail that was going to ask us why your favorite doctor wasn’t named. Nonetheless, we are braced for any and all correspondence and will cheerfully and professionally field your queries. Our coverage also extends into the care and prevention of breast cancer, prostate cancer and heart disease. And NBC 7/39 medical correspondent Peggy Pico looks inside today’s fad diets.

MEANWHILE, OUR REGULAR COVERAGE of the spectrum that is San Diego rolls on. October is the one-year anniversary of the severe firestorms that tortured our region. Writer Marcia Manna takes us back to trying times in Julian, and shows how the mountain community is now open for business as usual.

And for those who think we’ve been stingy in our coverage of the visual arts—we agree. We get back on track this month with a look through the lens at three current exhibits. Our new arts writer Julia Spalding and veteran Charlene Baldridge take us on tours of the Museum of Photographic Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Definitely check out a collection of shots by actor Jeff Bridges at MoPA. There’s also a historical look by Thomas K. Arnold at the 50th anniversary of the Salk Institute. Dierdre O’Shea interviews Benson Deng, a “Lost Boy of the Sudan,” who overcame incredible hardship to land here. Edited by Margie Farnsworth and Tom Shess, our quarterly design section, HDQ, checks in. And I provide a forum for city attorney candidates Mike Aguirre and Leslie Devaney to square off.

Don’t forget to vote this November. And enjoy the issue.

RON DONOHO
Executive Editor