That awkward moment when a "Top Physician" is actually a nurse practitioner

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"Top Imposter" would be a more fitting title, don't you think?

That awkward moment when a "Top Physician" is actually a nurse practitioner

UPDATE: We have been advised by an ambitious Redditor (u/tomatoegg3927) that South Jersey Magazine has removed Ms. Briglia from their list after he/she reached out to them:

“Hello -- thanks for your note about our Top Physicians for Women list that ran in May. In reviewing matters, it does not appear that Ms. Briglia appeared in our print edition of the magazine or our digital edition. It does seem, though, that somehow her name got on the online version without us catching it. That is likely because she accumulated a lot of votes through readers' choice and was mistakenly left on the web version after our vetting process. She has since been removed.
We appreciate your interest in the magazine.
Kind regards, SJ magazine”

The South Jersey Magazine recently published its list of Top Physicians for Women 2023. You would think that everyone on this list is an actual physician with a medical degree (i.e. an MD or DO), but in the times we live in, you can't even trust the media to verify that.

South Jersey Magazine - Top Physicians for Women 2023
Triada Integrative Medicine & Wellness - Facebook - November 15, 2023

Case in point: Krystal Briglia, who is actually a nurse practitioner. The ethical thing for a non-physician to do would be to recuse yourself from being listed, but instead, NP Briglia has decided to capitalize off her "Top Physician" status, at the expense of confusing the general public. While she technically does have a "Doctorate of Nursing Practice" degree, how can the average person tell the difference when she prominently advertises herself using terms like "Doctor", "#TopDoc", "Physician", and "Women in Medicine"? How can a nurse practitioner claim to practice medicine? Hopefully she practices "#AstheticMedicine" better than she can spell the word "aesthetics" - apparently, proper spelling of medical terminology was not a strong suit in the Grand Canyon University FNP/DNP program, where Ms. Briglia obtained her degrees.

If you have any remaining doubt that this obfuscation was accidental, look no further than the website for her med spa, "Triada Integrative Medicine & Wellness". The staff section only lists her as a doctor, with no further clarification of her credentials.

The website for Triada Integrative Medicine & Wellness also states that they provide psychiatry, but Ms. Briglia is a family nurse practitioner. How can you claim to practice psychiatry with a straight face if you're not a psychiatrist? This is yet another example of how misleading it can be when nurse practitioners with DNP degrees call themselves "doctor".

Triada Integrative Medicine & Wellness - Facebook

Based on the fact that NP Briglia has employment profiles at Virtua Health (as a FNP) and AtlantiCare (in the emergency department as an employee of Atlantic Emergency Associates), we suspect that Triada may be more of a side gig for her.

We can only wonder how these otherwise-reputable healthcare organizations would react when confronted with the fact that they are employing a nurse practitioner who is actively advertising herself to the general public as a "Top Doctor" and "Top Physician". "Top Imposter" would be a more fitting title, don't you think?

New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs - File a Complaint

New Jersey Professional and Occupational Board Complaint Form