UAB faculty-physicians comprise 85 percent (215) of all Birmingham metropolitan-area medical specialists (253) on the latest list of “Best Doctors in America.”

Best Doctors is an independent, knowledge-based medical referral service located in Aiken, S.C. Its surveys ask peer physicians, “If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them?” Only about 3 to 5 percent of all specialists worldwide make the list, which currently names 50,000 in the United States.

Nominations for the list are anonymous, and doctors’ evaluations are confidential, according to the company.

The system of review, based on methodology invented in 1992, includes a method of catching and correcting bias for or against particular physicians or groups of physicians. Listings cannot be purchased.

More information is available at www.bestdoctors.com .