An important person required in the society today is "A complete doctor".
What is a ' a complete doctor'?
Somebody rightly said "Specialization (MD & MS) and Super Specialization (DM/Mch) is knowing more and more about less and less..........and perhaps, ultimately knowing, everything about nothing !!".
This is a major challenge we face today. As the craze for specialization and number of specialists increase, the number of generalists (a general doctor) decrease. This lead to a number of problems in proper diagnosis and treatment.
I often see, right from from post graduation days, surgeons refusing to read ECG's of their patients (saying 'let the cardiologists do so'), ENT surgeons not evening taking history in a Rehumatology patient, Gynaecologist refusing to talk to a patient/relative with an eye problem etc.
The point here is NOT to be a master of all fields; but to ensure that as a specialist, you don't wipe other specialities from your mind. As a specialist you don't have to treat patients of other specialities, but I strongly feel that a specialist should have a fair knowledge of other specialities and should at least be able to make a reasonable diagnosis.
God made only one single body; different specialities are made by us-humans. So no bacteria, virus or for that matter of fact, any illness is expected to restrict itself to the artificial systems and specialities (heart, brain, tummy, gynae etc) which we have made. So it becomes inevitable that a practicing clinician in ANY speciality would come across patients, not too infrequently, when the illness of his speciality presents as an illness of some other speciality which he/she would miss if they are not well acquintated with other specialities.
I daily come across patients who are treated like a 'football' (referred from one doctor to another) for the want of a proper diagnosis; which would not happen if a good 'complete doctor' sees such a patient.
What is a ' a complete doctor'?
Somebody rightly said "Specialization (MD & MS) and Super Specialization (DM/Mch) is knowing more and more about less and less..........and perhaps, ultimately knowing, everything about nothing !!".
This is a major challenge we face today. As the craze for specialization and number of specialists increase, the number of generalists (a general doctor) decrease. This lead to a number of problems in proper diagnosis and treatment.
I often see, right from from post graduation days, surgeons refusing to read ECG's of their patients (saying 'let the cardiologists do so'), ENT surgeons not evening taking history in a Rehumatology patient, Gynaecologist refusing to talk to a patient/relative with an eye problem etc.
The point here is NOT to be a master of all fields; but to ensure that as a specialist, you don't wipe other specialities from your mind. As a specialist you don't have to treat patients of other specialities, but I strongly feel that a specialist should have a fair knowledge of other specialities and should at least be able to make a reasonable diagnosis.
God made only one single body; different specialities are made by us-humans. So no bacteria, virus or for that matter of fact, any illness is expected to restrict itself to the artificial systems and specialities (heart, brain, tummy, gynae etc) which we have made. So it becomes inevitable that a practicing clinician in ANY speciality would come across patients, not too infrequently, when the illness of his speciality presents as an illness of some other speciality which he/she would miss if they are not well acquintated with other specialities.
I daily come across patients who are treated like a 'football' (referred from one doctor to another) for the want of a proper diagnosis; which would not happen if a good 'complete doctor' sees such a patient.
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