UC San Diego Medical Center once again has excelled in the "Physicians of Exceptional Excellence" survey, which will appear in the October issue of San Diego Magazine.

Eighty University of California, San Diego, physicians in 30 specialties were rated the best doctors in the region by their peers — more than any other health care system or medical group in San Diego County. UC San Diego consistently has had more physicians on the top doctors list than any other medical group and the number of UC San Diego physicians that are named the best in San Diego continues to grow every year.

Selections for the 2009 top doctors list were made from practitioners in San Diego County. To receive a vote, a San Diego County Medical Society member is asked to vote for those board-certified doctors who practice in San Diego County to whom they would refer their patients and family members. The member is allowed to vote across specialties.

Five of the UC San Diego physicians rated as the best in the region are in the departments of psychiatry and urology, which recently were ranked among the nation's best in those specialties by U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, five other UC San Diego physicians were named as best doctors in more than one specialty (denoted in the list below by *).

"We are very proud to see the excellence of our physicians endorsed by our peers in the community," said David Brenner, M.D., vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at UC San Diego. "As the only top-ranked academic medical center in San Diego, we strive to serve the community with the best physicians providing state-of-the-art health care and the very best care to our patients. It's gratifying to see our peers believe we are achieving our goals."

UC San Diego Health Sciences encompasses the School of Medicine, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the UC San Diego Medical Group, and UC San Diego Medical Center — the system of patient services provided at Hillcrest, Thornton Hospital, La Jolla, the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, the UCSD Shiley Eye Center and other primary and specialty practices located throughout San Diego. As a top-tier academic medical center, its role is to provide leadership in improving health through research, education and patient care.

The San Diego Magazine listing includes UC San Diego physicians who practice at Rady Children's Hospital and Health Center and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.

The 80 UCSD physicians named in the 2009 "Physicians of Exceptional Excellence" survey are: