Do realize that doctors are required to do continuing medical education (CME [1]) to maintain their license? Not to say that the system is perfect, but it is fa

Do realize that doctors are required to do continuing medical education (CME [1]) to maintain their license? Not to say that the system is perfect, but it is false that doctors do not do some sort of continued study in their field (mandated or not.) Doctors most certainly have an incentive to keep their patients from getting sicker. One of the ways we evaluate quality of care is incidence of morbidity. How often does this patient continue to return to the hospital? This is a huge risk to physicians, in the form of a lawsuit. It isn't like there is any shortage of patients who require care. There are so many ways that hospitals encourage doctors to do bad things to make a buck, but preventing preventative care would not be the first thing I'd target. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_medical_education http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_medical_education