To find a top thyroid provider, you can ask for referrals. Some useful sources include:

• Your primary care doctor or gynecologist
• Other trusted healthcare providers, such as nutritionists, acupuncturists, or physical therapists
• Trusted friends, neighbors, family members, and co-workers
• Nurses at local hospitals or healthcare provider offices
• Pharmacists

Professional groups in the thyroid and endocrine area maintain searchable directories and databases that allow you to find thyroid specialists and endocrinologists in your area. Two key resources are:

• The American Thyroid Association’s "Find an Endocrinologist/Thyroid Specialist" directory
• The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) “Find an Endocrinologist” database. (Note: Select “Thyroid Dysfunction” under the category “Endocrine Focus” when you perform your search.)

Experienced thyroid surgeons have lower complication rates. If you are looking for an experienced thyroid surgeon, check out:

• American Association of Endocrine Surgeons database

• American Thyroid Association database — search on "Surgery - Endocrine"

• American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists practitioner database — search in “Surgery”

• Thyroid-Cancer.net specialists list — click the “find a cancer doctor” link

If you have thyroid cancer, a good resource for finding expert physicians is the Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association list of medical advisors. You can also join ThyCa’s Listservs for your specific type of thyroid cancer, and get recommendations from fellow thyroid cancer patients. Also:

• The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists practitioner database — search “cancer”

• American Thyroid Association database — choose "oncology"

If you are looking for an integrative or holistic provider with expertise in thyroid and hormone balance, here are some recommendations:

• American College for Advancement in Medicine — Integrative Physician Finder

• The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) online directory

• Lifescript’s Doctors Who Treat or Diagnose Hormonal Imbalance

• The American College for Advancement in Medicine’s Physician+Link integrative doctor database

Some additional resources to find integrative and holistic doctors include:

• The International College of Integrative Medicine’s ICIM Member Search

• American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine database

• American Osteopathic Association Find a DO directory

There are several thyroid-specific doctor lists, including:

• ThyroidChange’s patient-recommended integrative U.S. thyroid doctor list

• RLC Labs — the drug company that makes natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) drugs Nature-throid and Thyroid WP — has a Thyroid Doctors Database of physicians who prescribe NDT.

Health insurance companies and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have searchable databases of their providers, for example Aetna DocFind, United Healthcare Doctor Finder, and Kaiser Find Doctors. Lifescript’s Doctor Finder database searches by insurer, including Aetna, Amerigroup, Assurant, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Coventry, Guardian, Healthnet, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Medicaid, Medicare, Molina, United Healthcare, Wellcare, and Wellpoint.

There are websites that allow patients to rate and review doctors. Keep in mind that these are unverified reviews and ratings, which can skew the results.

• Healthgrades Find a Doctor

• RateMDs Doctor Reviews & Ratings

• Vitals.com

• UCompareHealthCare.com

• DrScore.com

A better choice may be Angie's List, which verifies the patient reviews of doctors.

You may want to review ratings from media or other doctors. Some helpful resources include:

• Consumer Reports Doctor and Hospital Ratings feature.

• Doctor-nominated regional lists, including Washingtonian Magazine's Top Doctors and New York Magazine'sTop Doctors list.

• Best in Medicine’s impartial "Doctors to Watch" List

• US News Top Doctors list

In California, the California Quality Ratings database has a quantitative rating of physicians and hospitals in the state.

Castle Connolly is the leading American company that publishes verified and vetted top-doctors lists in their proprietary books and websites. The Castle Connolly Top Doctors Directory is available free online. If you need personalized help finding a doctor, they also have a well-regarded Doctor Advisory Service that, for a fee, can help you find a doctor.