I have made appointments with thousands of doctors. Yet I was highly suspicious of them. Or should I put it flat-out? “Goddamn it, how come they can be doctors?”
I had been reading psychiatric forums (for patients) in English so most of the contributors were Americans. And their best finding? One in twenty psychiatrists is good.
Since I don’t live in the UK or the US (I live in the Czech Republic), I cannot replicate this anecdotal evidence. But of course, I know that personal experience can never be submitted as valid evidence. So I kind of go against my own findings.
But no matter what, I think you can get the lesser evil, so my psychiatrist performs poorly, yet my department from him would only mean worse care for me.
Why should we attract the best people to be the best doctors
Doctors have a direct and immediate impact on patients’ lives, health, and well-being. High competence in medicine can mean the difference between life and death, effective treatment or prolonged suffering, and a quick recovery versus long-term complications.
Medicine often involves diagnosing and treating complex and multifaceted health issues. The best minds are needed to tackle these challenges, ensuring accurate diagnoses, effective treatment plans, and innovative solutions to emerging medical problems.
Highly skilled doctors are more proficient at avoiding medical errors, which can significantly impact patient safety and outcomes.
The best doctors would serve as ethical role models within the medical community, setting high standards for behavior and practice.
Best doctors: IQ, talent and morality
In the country where I live, there are only two aspects to being admitted as a medicine student: sheer IQ and rote memory.
You may think I am joking, but no. Admitting IQ goes hand in hand with rote memory can be a good counterargument but, but sheer IQ isn’t everything.
IQ, however, is clearly connected with talents, but you must somehow have the very talent. IQ doesn’t implicate the talent.
So obviously some talent test should be included in the admission.
Last but not least is morality. Doctors are expected to adhere to high ethical standards in all aspects of their practice, including honesty in communication, integrity in clinical research, and transparency in reporting medical errors. But in reality? No way!
Also, providing compassionate and empathetic care is central to the moral practice of medicine. This involves understanding and responding to patients’ emotional, psychological, and social needs.
Doctors bear moral accountability for their actions and decisions, necessitating transparency with patients and families, particularly in instances of error. Ethical reporting of unethical conduct and medical mistakes is imperative, safeguarding patients and upholding the medical profession’s integrity.
Doctors must be aware of and actively counteract their own implicit biases to provide equitable care to all patients, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.
How rare are these?
Well, since every criterion I mention is normally distributed, we have a very scarce resource pool.
Let’s calculate the number of people who are in the top 15.85% (or higher) in IQ, morality, and talent.
We have 8,364,167 people in the US. Well, that is kind of rare (I didn’t calculate that talent correlates with IQ, therefore the actual number is higher).
What is the motivation for the best people?
You are obviously thinking about money and you are right. But if societal changes occurred, social prestige could also be a significant lure for smart, talented, and moral individuals.
The USA’s GDP was 25.44 trillion in 2022. The super-rich owns the whole planet, so I don’t think there is any money. We should only need to allocate it properly.
Where do the best people go?
Corporate executives, excellent engineers, entrepreneurs, real estate, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, insurance, risk management, investment and finances.
But this is capitalism, my intelligent readers may assume. They are exactly where they are meant to be.
My argument is morality and human lives should be put higher than dubious socioeconomic success which is nothing but competing and capitalism provides only short-term goals.
Conclusion
The best people should go to be the best doctors. The pool I mentioned shouldn’t be meant only for doctors, however, people who currently are doctors shouldn’t be doctors meanwhile people in highly paying spheres should go to this highly important profession.
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