I've had two experiences in the last 10 years or so involving two "significant" conditions — not necessarily in the standard sense of threat to life, but in the

I've had two experiences in the last 10 years or so involving two "significant" conditions — not necessarily in the standard sense of threat to life, but in the sense of nonroutine and potentially becoming something more problematic, involving multiple significant testing procedures and several different teams of providers. The two things were totally unrelated issues. Both of them just reinforced my sense that the degree pretty much doesn't matter anymore. In one case I saw several physicians of different specialties, and none of them had any idea what was going on. My own initial hunch ended up being correct, and I kind of ended up fixing it myself (complicated to explain, nothing illegal or inappropriate; ironically the first physican I saw was also correct, the only one who got it right, but he dismissed it and convinced himself it was wrong). In the other case, the best care we got was from a PA. The physicians were all specialists who were financially motivated to give care that was totally useless but very expensive (we figured this out by looking in the primary scientific literature and realizing that all the procedures they were heavily pushing were no better than waitlist controls). The PA was the only one recommending things that were actually useful. I've seen useful MDs as well, especially with pediatricians and radiologists. I'm not saying MDs are bad or useless. But I'm increasingly convinced that different educational and training paths do not necessarily mean inferior or superior care; that a lot of services could be provided through different providers or mechanisms; and a lot of what people see providers for could be obtained without any provider as a middleman.