This list was compiled by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., a health care research and information company founded in 1991 by a former medical college board chairman and president to help guide consumers to America’s top doctors and hospitals. Castle Connolly’s nomination survey, research, screening, and selection process, under the direction of an MD, involves many hundreds of thousands of physicians as well as academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, and regional and community hospitals across the nation. Castle Connolly’s physician-led team of researchers follows a rigorous process to select doctors on both the national and regional levels. Its online nominations process (at castleconnolly.com/nominations) is open to all licensed physicians in America. They are able to nominate physicians in any specialty and in any part of the country, as well as indicate whether those physicians are, in their opinion, among the best in their region or in the nation in their specialty. The doctors’ educational and professional experience is carefully screened before final selection is made among those physicians most highly regarded by their peers. After identifying the top doctors in America, Castle Connolly provides consumers with detailed information about their education, training, and special expertise in its paperback guides and online directories and in national and regional magazine “Top Doctors” features. Doctors do not and cannot pay to be selected and profiled. Physicians selected for Chicago’s “Top Doctors” may also appear online at castleconnolly.com or in conjunction with other Castle Connolly Top Doctors databases online and in print.