Dr. Michael Gartner has been named a 2026 Castle Connolly Top Doctor.
What the Castle Connolly Recognition Actually Means
Worth pausing on what that actually involves, because it’s not the kind of badge you see on every practice’s homepage. There’s no application. You can’t pay to be listed, and you can’t put your own name forward. The nominations come from other physicians — the people who refer patients back and forth and know who they’d trust with their own family. Castle Connolly’s research team then goes through each one, checking training, board certification, hospital affiliations, and track record before the name is confirmed.
They’ve run it this way since 1991, and the bar is high enough that the doctors who make the final list come out to about 7% of physicians practicing in the country.
“The most meaningful recognition always comes from your peers,” says Dr. Gartner. “We strive every day to provide the highest standard of safety and aesthetic results. Knowing that other physicians trust our practice enough to recommend us to their own families is incredibly humbling, and it reinforces our commitment to our patients.”
For a patient, that’s the useful part. Anyone who’s searched for a surgeon online has hit the same wall — every result is “award-winning,” and most of those awards don’t survive a second look. A recognition built on peer referrals is harder to fake, because it’s other doctors doing the vouching, with an independent check behind it. One less thing to wonder about when you’re weighing a procedure and choosing who operates on you.
To schedule a consultation with Dr. Gartner, contact our Paramus office today.
