As a doctor, it surprises and disturbs me how little attention many of my colleagues pay to current medical articles. You see, I didn't come to medicine in the traditional way. I didn't get straight A's in college. I didn't immediately go to medical school. I certainly didn't go to any of the top ranking universities. Everything was tough for me. As a matter of fact, I only got a medical education because of a passion for medicine motivated by the health problems my son was suffering.
I was a parent before I was a doctor, and as a parent I read all the medical news that I could get ahold of. Of course, I could not read the serious medical journal articles. I didn't have the money to subscribe to these journals, and anyway, the writing was above my head. Nonetheless, I checked in on medical websites, watched health news on the evening news, and in general kept as abreast of new medical technologies as a citizen with no background in human physiology can.
When I could finally read medical articles and understand what was going on, I was overjoyed! I enjoyed reading every medical article that I could get a hold of, but especially the cutting edge stuff. The medical community, like many communities, is always about 10 years behind. New discoveries such as the potential dangers of antibiotics and the interaction between mind and body still have not received total medical recognition. The problem is that, when doctors don't keep up with the cutting edge, people get sick or die. This is why it is so crucial for professionals to keep up with the current medical articles.
Many doctors think is enough to read the medical articles that are specific to their area of specialization. It isn't. Patients don't always neatly and conveniently end up at the correct doctor at the correct time. Sometimes, a serious medical problem has a source that no one can anticipate. When this happens, knowing the current medical literature can save the patient's life. It is as simple as that. Articles on medicine teach doctors things that they did not learn when they went to med school. Our knowledge of human anatomy changes so quickly that education for a doctor must be continuous. If you are a doctor, whether you work in general practice or have specialized in surgery, neurology, or some other field, you owe it to yourself and you owe it to your patients to read medical journals.
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