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AMA Physician Select FAQ for Consumers/Patients

General Information

Technical troubleshooting


General Information

Q. Tell me about AMA Physician Select.
AMA Physician Select provides comprehensive information on individual physicians from which consumers can select a physician or verify the credentials of a known physician. Unlike many physician locator services, AMA Physician Select includes virtually every physician licensed in the United States and its possessions, including more than 650,000 AMA member and nonmember doctors of medicine (MD) and doctors of osteopathy or osteopathic medicine (DO). AMA Physician Select does not include other licensed healthcare professionals such as dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, nurses, or allied health personnel.

Physician listings are based on data maintained in the AMA Physician Masterfile, the nation's most comprehensive and unbiased physician database. All physician credential data in the AMA Physician Masterfile have been authenticated by the primary source (eg, medical schools, residency training programs, and licensing authorities). You may want to review Physician Education, Licensure, and Certification for additional information.

Q. I searched for my physician by name and didn't find him. What should I do?
Physicians are listed in AMA Physician Select by their full name with proper spelling. Nicknames or shortened first names are not included. Use the last name and the state in which the physician resides to search by name. Add the first initial of the first name if your initial search results are too lengthy. Use the "*" (the asterisk symbol, which acts as a "wildcard") when adding the first initial of the first name: L* Smith. It will search on all "Smiths" that begin with L. You may also want to perform a "sounds-like" search, by checking the box provided on the page, if you are unsure of the exact spelling of a name or city.

Q. How do I search for a physician by name if I am not sure which state he/she practices in?
AMA Physician Select is designed to look up known physicians or locate a physician by specialty in a particular area. Therefore, users must know the state in which a physician is located to conduct the search.

There are Web sites that can help you find a person and determine what state they are in before searching for them on Physician Select. A few such Web sites are: Switchboard (http://www.switchboard.com), Yahoo People Search (http://www.yahoo.com/search/people), Bigfoot (http://www.bigfoot.com), and ClassMates Online (http://www.classmates.com). The American Medical Association is not affiliated with these Web sites and cannot vouch for their content or the accuracy of their services.

After you have found the state in which the physician is located, use AMA Physician Select to search by the physician name.

Q. I searched for my physician by name and state and he/she is listed in the city adjacent to the city in which his/her practice is located. Please explain.
Physician addresses included in AMA Physician Select reflect either an office or residential location. Your physician's office address may not have been available when the listing was most recently updated. AMA Physician Select listings include complete office addresses. However, due to privacy issues, residential addresses include only city, state, and zip code. You may want to consult a local telephone directory or directory assistance to verify your physician's office location.

Q. My son/daughter is a resident physician and I didn't find him/her in the database. Please explain.
AMA Physician Select lists only licensed physicians with full and unrestricted licenses. Many residents are not licensed until after completing at least one full year of residency training. Your son/daughter will be listed in AMA Physician Select after receiving licensure in one or more of the 54 U.S. licensing jurisdictions.

Q. My doctor recently moved and AMA Physician Select does not provide his new office location. Who should update this information?
Your physician may send information updates to the American Medical Association by using the Online Data Collection Center. Physicians can provide data in an online form or print a pre-filled form that can be edited and mailed or faxed to the AMA, or they may contact the Department of Data Survey and Planning at 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610, or 312 464-5827 (fax).

Q. Can I search for a deceased physician?
The AMA keeps limited history on deceased physicians, and AMA Physician Select does not maintain such information. Below are two sources you can contact for assistance. You may also want to contact the U. S. Census Bureau, as well as your state and local medical societies.

Genealogical Society of Utah
280 C.O.B.
50 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
801-240-3702 (main information desk) 		  National Genealogical Society
4527 17th Street, N.
Arlington, VA 22207-2399
1-703-525-0050
(They charge $15.00 per record)

Q. Did my physician pay a fee to be listed in AMA Physician Select?
AMA Physician Select includes all U.S. licensed physicians. Physicians do not pay a fee to be listed in this service. Only American Medical Association member licensed physicians have an opportunity to provide an expanded listing in AMA Physician Select, also at no cost to the physician. Expanded listings may include a photograph of the physician or his/her office, and information about the physician's office hours, hospital admitting privileges, group practice affiliations, managed care plan participation, Medicare/Medicaid participation, languages spoken, and professional achievements/awards.

Q. What is a self-designated practice specialty?
The AMA Physician Select search-by-specialty option is based on medical specialty information provided by each physician. Physicians report their primary and secondary practice specialty via AMA surveys, the AMA Online Data Collection Center and other data collection vehicles. Although studies conducted by the U.S. Health and Human Services Bureau of Health professions show that most self-designated practice specialties are consistent with physicians' graduate medical training and/or board certification, a self-designated specialty does not warranty special skill to practice in that specialty. See Physician Licensure, Certification, and Education for information about graduate medical training and board certification.

Q. I need to find a specialist. What is the best way to search by specialty?
Choose one of the 23 specialty categories listed, or click the "search from an expanded list of medical specialties" link for more choices. Choose a specialty and provide as much additional information as you can in the "State," "City," and "Zip Code" search boxes. If your search results are too lengthy, you will be asked to narrow the search by adding zip code, city, or detailed specialty.

Q. What can I do if I think my physician has committed an ethical violation?
Potential ethical violations should be reported to the state medical society or licensing board of the state in which the physician is practicing. The AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs has information on Reporting Ethical Violations including a list of state medical societies and licensing boards.

Q. Where else can I obtain information about my physician?
AMA Physician Select includes comprehensive information on all physicians that hold a doctor of medicine (MD) or doctor of osteopathy or osteopathic medicine (DO) degree and are licensed in one or more of the 54 U.S. licensing jurisdictions. Additional information about physician licensure can be obtained from state licensing authorities, which can be found through your state or local medical society. Look for something like "Illinois Medical Society," "Chicago Medical Society," or "DuPage County Medical Society" in your local phone book. For information on disciplinary actions or malpractice suits, please contact your state or local medical society.

The Directory of Physicians in the United States, published by the American Medical Association, includes information on individuals that hold a MD or DO degree, irrespective of licensure status. Aggregate physician data are provided in Physician Characteristics and Distribution, published annually by the AMA. Both resources can be found in most large libraries or can be ordered by calling 800 621-8335.

Q. My physician holds an AMA Physician's Recognition Award (AMA
PRA). What is the significance of this award?
A physician's education continues throughout his/her career and constitutes a continuum of life long learning. The AMA PRA recognizes those physicians who have annually completed and documented 50 or more hours of formal and personal continuing education activities and who have sought AMA recognition. All formal activities must have been presented by organizations accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

Q. I have a specific medical condition. How can I find out more about it?
We are unable to give medical advice over the Internet. We strongly encourage you to pose this question to your personal physician. If you would like to search for information about this subject on your own, please try the AMA Search engine (see "Search our site" at top right corner of this page) to see what is available at our site. We also suggest that you visit Medem's Medical Library for credible, comprehensive health information.

Q. Health Information: What is Medem?
A. Medem was created by the nation's leading medical societies and associations (including the AMA) to create an e-health network that provides trusted medical information online for the public. Visit Medem's Medical Library for credible, comprehensive health information.

Q. Can I obtain data or mailing labels on individual physicians or groups of physicians?
For a fee, the AMA disseminates data to educational institutions, professional associations, and others interested in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating physician data. Mailing labels, custom reports, and electronic data are available.

Educational institutions and professional associations please contact Scott.Birkhead@ama-assn.org or 312 464-4184 (fax). Commercial or business requests should go to Emma.Lightburn@ama-assn.org or 312 464-5938 (fax).

Q. Does the AMA offer physician credentialing products needed by organizations that verify physician credentials directly (e.g., licensing boards, hospitals, group practices, managed care organizations) or credentialing organizations that verify physician credentials for a third party?
The AMA Physician Profile Service provides comprehensive and current primary source information for organizations involved in verifying physician credentials. General information is available on the Web site at www.ama-assn.org/amaprofiles or by telephoning the Profile Customer Service at 800-665-2882.

Technical troubleshooting

Problem: Older browsers
Physician Select works best, and has been tested most thoroughly, with versions 4 and newer of Netscape and Microsoft's Web browsers. It is also known to work well with AOL versions 4 and newer, WebTV, and, for text-only terminal users, Lynx versions 2.7 and newer. Generally, any browser that supports HTML level 3 should suffice.

Problem: I don't see any "Search" button. What do I do after entering the information?
You should see a row of green buttons, including one labeled "Search." Graphical browsers (Netscape, Mosaic, etc): be sure you have the browser set to "Auto Load Images."

Problem: I see the other images but no green buttons.
You may need to upgrade your browser. Our buttons use standard HTML level 2 coding, but some older browsers don't interpret it correctly. The newest versions of the more popular browsers (Netscape Navigator, Mosaic, etc.) work fine.

Problem: I'm using a text-only browser.
The application does work with Lynx versions 2.4.2 and better. Use the first [IMAGE]-Submit link below the search form to search. If your version is older, ask your system administrator to upgrade.

Error message: "1013"
Your browser is not handling the image submit buttons properly. Please upgrade your browser by going to the browser's home page (such as Netscape.com or MSN.com).

Error message: "IWCFMGR Error: Invalid session"
When you use Physician Select a "program session" is started. Sessions will end or "time out" if there is no activity within a ten-minute period. Activity is considered to be the use of the green buttons ("Search," "First Record," "Next Page," etc.) or clicking on a physician's name to get more information. Re-start Physician Select by going to the AMA home page and clicking on the "Doctor Finder" link in the left hand navigation bar. You may need to clear your browser's cache, which saves Web pages for faster reference each time you want to use them. Using an old page will likely produce an error. Also, you should always enter Physician Select directly from the AMA home page, rather than bookmarking it so you don't start with cached pages.

Error message: "SQL"
If you get an "SQL error" it would be very helpful if you could mail the error message and a brief description of what you were doing at the time to Webmaster@ama-assn.org.