One of our readers reports that a GP told him once that he believed he was at his peak after he’d been a doctor for 3 years – at that point he had 3 years of experience “under his belt,” but that after that, what he’d learnt in Med School would be starting to be out-of-date. And that was more than 40 years ago!
How much would it be more so these days.
The simple fact is that if we consult a doctor in 2018, who’s been a doctor for any length of time, on a matter that’s concerning us, that matter may not have been covered when they were in Med School, and even if it was, what was taught then may now be hopelessly out of date.
What’s the solution?
In the words of the Dilbert cartoon shown below, “everything I need to know is on the internet!”
Further to this post, this question fascinates us – how is it that a geriatrician who we will call Dr XXX, i.e. a specialist in “the care of aged persons,” who should probably be prescribing Modafinil to at least 50% of her patients, obviously knows nothing about it? To us it’s not good enough for such people to be saying, “Oh, Modafinil wasn’t covered when I was in Med School.”
But as the Google cartoon goes on to suggest, the internet is not always user friendly. If you do a Google search on “Modafinil,” more than three and half million results come up in less than half a second, but how are you and I going going to even start on going through even some of the results that are out there ? What is needed is people who we are calling “Internet Researchers,” (we hope there’s a better name out there – perhaps readers have suggestions,) who earn a good living by being experts on what’s on the internet and providing summaries of what’s available, and answering questions as they come up. You would think that such people could produce material that could be studied by the Dr XXX’s of this world for an hour or less, which would give them a good working knowledge on the the latest on Modafinil, and which would equip them to better advise their patients.
One of our readers in his late 70s reports that he’s been using Modafinil for at least 5-7 years, saying he couldn’t live without it, it having been mentioned to him incidentally by a relative, not a doctor, 5 years ago, and that he wouldn’t have learnt anything about it from any of the doctors he’s seen in the last 5-7 years!!! – and that such things are making him more an more angry. But that’s how it is!
