Ethical use of Yellow Pages listings by physicians.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine examined the percentage of physicians listed under specialty headings in a Yellow Pages publication who were board certified. The authors presented findings that many of the physicians listed in the Yellow Pages, particularly under the heading of "Plastic Surgery," were not board certified. The source data employed in that article were obtained and reexamined, and it was found that the assumptions used were inaccurate and the methodology flawed. Almost every physician listed under "Plastic Surgery" in the Yellow Pages is board certified. We discuss the conclusions of the original article and its recommendations for control of Yellow Pages listings. We believe that these recommendations are not in the public's best interests and may be illegal as well.