The Newsweek "Best Plastic Surgeons" List, and What a New Study Found About It

It's that time of year when plastic surgeons all over the country are posting that they've been named one of the best plastic surgeons in the country by Newsweek.

Let me get my conflict of interest out of the way immediately: I'm on this list too. So you can't tell me I'm making this video because I'm salty.

I still think this list is weird.

I have no idea how I got on this list, and I'm not really sure how anyone does.

And when you actually look at who's listed, it gets stranger. I know people who appear on lists for specific areas of surgery that they don't even perform. So something is clearly off in how these categories get assigned.

An article published last month in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal looked at the surgeons recognized in the Newsweek top plastic surgeon rankings, and it's genuinely interesting. First, the mechanics as described:

• The rankings started in 2021, so we're now five years in
• A survey is distributed to plastic surgeons, plastic surgery clinic managers, and other medical professionals (whatever that last category means)
• Scores are built from in-state recommendations (weighted more heavily), out-of-state recommendations, a quality of care measure, and a certification score

Before the findings, the fundamental problem:

There is no general registry you can consult that reports surgeons' outcomes. So a recommendation-based survey is measuring reputation and visibility among colleagues, not results. It is, frankly, silliness.

The trouble is that the general public takes it seriously.

Here's what the researchers set out to examine: whether there are gender disparities among the surgeons recognized on the list. What they reported:

• Women make up roughly 20% of the plastic surgery workforce in the United States
• But female representation on this list is about 10%
• And it has been falling since the very first year
• The gap does not appear to be explained by age, meaning it isn't simply that female plastic surgeons skew younger
• Surgeons already on the list are more likely to stay on it, an incumbency effect
• Certain geographic locations are overrepresented

That incumbency finding is telling. If being on the list is the best predictor of staying on the list, then the list is substantially measuring who was already on the list, which is not a measure of surgical skill at all.

If it's not a real ranking, why care?

Because the public takes it seriously. Patients genuinely use lists like this when choosing a surgeon, which is exactly why the criteria that do matter, board certification, hospital privileges, and actually evaluating before-and-afters, deserve more weight than a magazine logo.

And it's disappointing to see a major periodical underrepresent female plastic surgeons when there are so many fabulous women in this field. When a flawed list shapes public perception, that underrepresentation compounds.

Here's a detail worth knowing about how these things work:

So I'd gently suggest these lists aren't published purely out of the goodness of anyone's heart to inform the public about who's good and who isn't. There's a licensing business attached.

Honestly? I don't know how I feel about this kind of thing. It's certainly nice to be recognized.

But it is not what makes me feel good about my practice. What does that is the wonderful patients who come in, have great outcomes, and who I genuinely love working with. That's the actual scoreboard.

• I'm on the Newsweek list and I still think it's not a real ranking of surgical skill, there's no outcomes registry that could support one.
• A new Aesthetic Surgery Journal study found women are ~20% of the plastic surgery workforce but only ~10% of the list, a gap that has been widening since 2021 and isn't explained by age.
• The list shows a strong incumbency effect and geographic overrepresentation.
• These lists frequently involve paying the magazine to license the logo for your advertising.
• Vet surgeons on credentials, privileges, and results, not magazine placement.

Interesting study. What do you think?