For me a doctor is much more than someone with domain knowledge and access to medical services. My experiences, however, are purely with dutch doctors. A good

For me a doctor is much more than someone with domain knowledge and access to medical services. My experiences, however, are purely with dutch doctors. A good doctor, especially when treating chronic patients, forms an essential part of the social structure necessary to treat a disease. In most cases handing out recipes for pills is (or should be) only a minor part. Many chronic diseases are exacerbated (or caused solely) by stress, unhealthy eating habits, lack of activity, depression, social isolation, unhealthy working environments, etc. Why treat the symptoms when you can treat the causes? Armed with this knowledge, an intelligent doctor treats using medicine and spurs habitual changes. Another thing. You mention doctors are not intelligent and basically a human rolodex of knowledge. As an outsider, I've seen the complexity of our current understanding of the immune-system. Immunology alone has nothing to do with rote memorization. Compare it with diagnosing an extremely complex self-repairing, self-diagnosing, self-reproducing group of information systems. We have no complete manual. Performing proper tests is expensive and not 100% reliable. Although each information system within the group is similar, they are different in slight, unpredictable, undocumented ways. Oh, and each year, around 10 important books are published on new findings about these information systems. You only have time to read 5.