I am passionate about medical history and anthropology. It always amazes me how little medicine has changed from the days of the Greco-Roman world to the present.
To add some perspective, many physicians still believed in the four humors (black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm) until the mid 19th century. Scientists understood little about chromosomes and DNA, even at their most basic level, until the mid 20th century. After the mid 20th century, great advancements in science and the resulting evidence based medicine really began to take hold, but this was only the beginning of great change to come, change that continues to this day. And, what do we know about change?
As I'm sure we've all experienced, some people hate change, some are indifferent, and some are open and receptive to the possibility. Even today, some providers treat based off of the anecdotal "evidence" of old without ever caring to keep up to date. Even then, sometimes we only have anecdotal evidence until a determined someone proves otherwise and makes the information available to be weighed and used accordingly.
Let's back up and think about this for a second though. Things we learned about in BIO 101 were not understood by physicians 60-70 years, or one's lifetime ago. Even then, it was new information that was barely understood. Granted, there remains a lot about ourselves (read: human beings) that we do not yet know and may never know. There will be a lot we will do in our time as physicians that we will never understand fully why. Personally, I try to make it a point to understand as much of the 'why' as possible because if you do not have even a remote reason for doing something, then why are you doing it? Blind medicine is dangerous medicine.
Hopefully, this helps to show why medicine is a lifelong learning process. Furthermore, there's no one to hold your hand in this process. You either choose to do it to the benefit of yourself and your patients or not. As a physician, you are expected to help hold the hand of everyone around you, if needed: colleagues, patients, and just as important, your own. There is never a perfect answer, only a better one, and even that can prove relative to the moment.
I try not to involve myself in the trivial debates of whose degree 'looks' better, MD or DO, because we all know it does not matter. Not over a hundred years ago, there were still medical schools that were found to be fraudulent: true diploma mills. Medicine, nursing, etc. requirements were only beginning to be standardized in the time of some physicians who practice today. Standards continue to be developed. As a paramedic, I have personally seen the same bickering about who is a better provider between EMTs and paramedics, paramedics and nurses, nurses and doctors, etc. If someone chooses to be that way, fine. But, one should know that it's a long fall from a high horse and it may be more than one's ego being bruised in the end.
Sometimes, I think people associate the US MD with the long history of medicine. Of course, it has become part of medicine's history, but think about the age of this country compared to how long medicine has been around in the world.
Speaking of the world, other cultures even have other ways of doing things, too. And, I'm not talking about small African villages or towns in India. Treatments differ between Western cultures, between us, the French, the Germans, the British, etc. What knowledge does any of us possess that definitively proves American medicine's superiority in every sense? Some of what we do in this country is still harmful and a lot remains expensive. Numbers of studies are still fudged to this day, research evidence skewed through bad technique and simple omission.
At the end of the day, take what you learn, whether that be in the classroom or in clinics of the world, and use it to benefit mankind. There are more important things than the letters after your name or the coat you wear.
Do well and do good.
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