New to Long Island, I was glad to find a book claiming to identify physicians with expertise. I used the book to select two successive general practitioners and found their performance below average. They were not the diagnosticians I sought, but were primarily referral agents.In addition to the current problem of managed care expecting physicians to see another patient every 15 minutes, there is an additional pressure on Long Island---the high price of real estate. A doctor living in a $750,000 house on Long Island is barely living a middle class existence compared to Wall Street brokers. There is thus twice the pressure to have a rapid turnover of patients.People searching for doctors should continue to look for diplomas from the best medical schools...and then ask whether the doctor's mortgage is completely paid off.