MD vs PhD knowledge

[fun8stuff]

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I have been finding my neuro class interesting... the profs seem to be very smart. I guess they should know the stuff after teaching it so many times though. Is there a comparison between these profs neuro knowledge and a neurologist's knowledge? Does one more than the other? Is it equal? Is the MD's knowledge more clinically relavent? I am sure there will be some variabilty, but I am talking in general. Yeah, I know these are kind of stupid questions... I'm just curious....

 

[stochastic]

After having neuroanatomy taught by PhD's first year and Neurology taught by physicians this year, I did notice some differences. Mainly what you have already alluded to; the physicians of course knew a lot more about what a neurological disease will look like. Really all the PhD's know is what is in the textbooks. And since they seldom read lots of clinical texts, they can really only tell you the "classic" presentation. The clinicians knew about the little nuances (sp?) that can differentiate neurological diseases. The PhD's however knew all of the most obscure pathways cold, whereas the physicians just kinda knew what some of them were and what they did. Of course the clinicians knew all of the major pathways very well, but it is just not of clinical necessity to memorize some of the most obscure pathways.

 

[mendel121]

It honestly just reflects the method of gaining knowledge necessary in getting the MD vs the PhD - MDs tend to know a lot about a lot of things, while PhDs tend to know one hell of a lot about the few things that the work on. A PhD working on Parkinsons would know all of the little nuances of Parkinsons as would the MD, but the PhD would not also know the nuances of stroke that an MD would know

 

[Jorje286]

Well, I think people here are missunderstanding what the purpouse of a PHD is. It's really not about acquiring factual knowledge. It's about preparing you for a career in scientific research, and the job of a PHD really is to develop your research skills, rather than let you memorize what every disease is. PHDs usually get only a year of acquiring basic knowledge in PHD programs, basically to give them a broad idea about the field that they specialized in to and to give them elementary knowledge so they can be able to work in scientific research.