Best Doctors 2020: SLUCare Physicians Named to St. Louis Magazine List

St. Louis Magazine has released its 2020 Best Doctors issue, revealing the area's top physicians as selected by other doctors. The list includes 164 physicians representing SLUCare Physician Group across more than 40 different specialties.

Founded by Harvard Medical School physicians in 1989, Best Doctors, Inc., helps identify outstanding physicians across a range of medical specialties.

In addition to the SLUCare doctors who made the Best Doctors List, the magazine also featured several stories about the research coming out of Saint Louis University School of Medicine. 

Facing a Pandemic 

As the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, SLU is a vital part of the nationwide effort to find safe and effective therapies and vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

Sarah George, M.D., an associate professor of infectious diseases at SLU, was the principal investigator on a trial conducted at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, treating COVID patients with Remdesivir. The trial showed a shorter recovery time for patients treated with Remdesivir, versus those who received a placebo. 

“We’re not going to beat this until we get a vaccine,” George told St. Louis Magazine. That’s why additional trials and studies of treatments are necessary.

The magazine profiled the work of one of the SLU leaders working on testing potential vaccines. Daniel Hoft, M.D., Ph.D., the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy, and Immunology and the Center for Vaccine Development, was also recently appointed to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee.

The pandemic’s impact on how doctors and patients interact cannot be underestimated. SLUCare moved 50 percent of patient appointments to telehealth in one week, Matthew Zimmie, M.D., assistant vice president and chief medical information officer for SLUCare, told St. Louis Magazine. SLUCare also set up telehealth hubs to connect underserved populations with physicians. 

Staying connected during a time of social distancing can be difficult, but Terri Weaver, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at SLU, told St. Louis Magazine it is important for mental well-being. 

“At its core, the pandemic stresses our personal and professional lives in nearly every way,” Weaver said in April. “There is no break from the fear.”

The selected SLUCare physicians named as Best Doctors in 2020 — listed by specialty — are: 

Adult Medicine

Pediatric Medicine

Surgery

The list is based on the annual “Best Doctors in America” database, which considers more than one million peer evaluations to create a directory of approximately 40,000 doctors, from 40 medical specialties and 450 subspecialties.

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SLUCare Physician Group is the academic medical practice of Saint Louis University, with more than 500 health care providers and 1,200 staff members in hospitals and medical offices throughout the St. Louis region. SLUCare physicians are among the most highly trained in their fields - more than 50 specialties in all - and are national and international experts, renowned for research and innovations in medicine.