I think as the pool of knowledge balloons exponentially in size it becomes nearly impossible for a doctor to be familiar with all of it, so their only choice is

I think as the pool of knowledge balloons exponentially in size it becomes nearly impossible for a doctor to be familiar with all of it, so their only choice is to deeply specialize in one field and limit the breadth of patients they can treat (also becoming less knowledgeable about anything unrelated to their field), or they must be incredibly general and have only surface level knowledge of everything. 100 years ago a few years of study could teach you nearly everything there was to know in the medical field at the time. The expanding pool of knowledge also makes it harder to determine which knowledge is actually helpful to take in. I think this is an area where technology can help. The best primary care providers I've had have been the ones who aren't afraid to look things up as we're talking about them. I think better tools to aggregate the cutting edge of medical knowledge would help greatly.