The survey was sponsored and conducted by Consumers' CHECKBOOK/Center for the Study of Services (CHECKBOOK/CSS), a nationally recognized, nonprofit consumer research organization. CHECKBOOK/CSS has extensive experience surveying consumers and patients. For example, the organization manages the surveys the federal government sponsors of members of all the health plans and prescription drug plans that operate under the Medicare program. The organization also publishes magazines, books, and websites (at www.checkbook.org) directly for consumers, including Consumers' CHECKBOOK magazine, which evaluates and reports on the quality and prices of a wide range service providers (from auto repair shops to plumbers to hospitals) in seven major metropolitan areas around the U.S. (Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Chicago, Twin Cities, Seattle-Tacoma, and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose). CHECKBOOK magazine first published patient survey ratings of doctors in 1980, based on surveys of CHECKBOOK and Consumer Reports magazine subscribers. The organization has long sought to improve on the rigor and reliability of such surveys, and the survey described here was designed to achieve that.