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About The Best Doctors

These lists are excerpted from The Best Doctors in America database, which includes approximately 30,000 doctors in more than 40 medical specialties. The Best Doctors in America database is compiled and maintained by Best Doctors, Inc. For more information, visit www.bestdoctors.com, or contact Best Doctors by telephone, (800) 675-1199, Ext. 315 or by e-mail at info@bestdoctors.com. Best Doctors, Inc. has used its best efforts in assembling material for this list but does not warrant that the information contained herein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Best Doctor Guide >>

Crystal Terry, M.D.

Anesthesiologist
Alameda Hospital

Crystal Terry, an anesthesiologist at Alameda Hospital, believes in connecting literally with her patients to reassure and comfort them. That’s why she consistently administers physical contact to them.

“I always do,” she says. “That goes a long way.”

The mother of a 4-year-old daughter, Giovanna, Terry, an Oakland resident and jazz dancer, joined the Alameda Hospital staff in 1998 and describes her position there as a “very cool job. It’s a very fast moving job, and things change quickly.” An aspect of anesthesiology Terry finds especially compelling is that she’s got a bird’s-eye position to observe the latest advances in surgical technology. Terry came to Alameda Hospital after working on the anesthesiology staffs at Summit Medical Center/Providence Hospital, Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley and the Surgery Center.

While she has roots in San Diego and Louisiana, Terry headed to Harvard University as an undergraduate and majored in biology. She landed at the University of California School of Medicine for medical school, and a few years later she returned there to study medical acupuncture for physicians. Today she’s also a board-certified acupuncturist and finds pain management an ongoing interest.

Kenneth Trauner, M.D.

Orthopedic Surgeon
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center

As an orthopedic surgeon who concentrates on joint reconstruction, Kenneth Trauner combines his love for medicine with his passion for mechanical engineering.

Ask him what it really means to rebuild and replace joints, and he has his answer down pat: He enables adult patients who cannot walk because of so much pain in their knees or hips to walk again, pain-free.

“I make their pain go away,” he says, adding that his patients’ gratitude make his specialty extremely rewarding. “To get someone walking again is such a privilege.”

Trauner is a Stanford University graduate who attended Harvard Medical School and completed an orthopedic residency at UC Davis. Amazed by the exponential advances in surgical techniques and materials as well as the longevity of today’s implants, Trauner continues a long-running interest in research, actively investigating biophotonics with the National Science Foundation National Center for Biophotonics, which he helped establish with scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

A sixth-generation San Franciscan whose family came West for the Gold Rush, Trauner and his wife live in San Francisco with their 2-year-old and a new baby.

Jane E. Hunter, M.D.

Pediatrician
Pediatric Medical Group

Thanks to a motivating biology teacher at Castlemont High School, Jane Hunter knew in the 10th grade that she’d study medicine, but she envisioned a career in research.

Today a general pediatrics physician, Hunter decided the field was too refined and narrow, so as the mother of a 2-year-old, she entered medical school. Initially, she balked at pediatrics, but her rotation in the specialty proved rewarding, she was good at it and it fit her lifestyle. She has been happily practicing at the Pediatric Medical Group in Berkeley since 1981. “It has been a very wonderful 24 years,” she says.

Choosing a pediatrician is important, and Hunter suggests that suitable candidates should be board certified by the American Academy of Pediatricians, be a parent, have a compatible approach to health care, be conveniently located geographically and be accessible. Additionally, she says, find out whom other parents choose.

An Oakland native, Hunter earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and a master’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles. Away from the clinic, Hunter experiments with ceramics, and she’s an avid runner, dancer, swimmer and a budding poet who has recently become involved with the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness.