It likely sounds like a rare condition for you and your family members but that particular example happens to be something regularly discussed in first year med

It likely sounds like a rare condition for you and your family members but that particular example happens to be something regularly discussed in first year medical school courses. See [1] for a discussion of how common this is. Also consider that a family practitioner might easily have 2,000 patients. Thus, she or he will likely have direct experience with diverticulitis. Further (and this is more inside baseball), your family members would need to be admitted to a hospital if their disease worsens to the point that a standard course of antibiotics won't help. There might be better examples of 'rare' conditions than this, but the point stands - for any condition where extensive domain knowledge is required, you'll have a specialist involved. Incidentally, diverticulitis is a very American disorder, likely attributable to our eating habits. You and all other readers should be sure to include fiber in your diet. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2780269/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2780269/