Philosophy

"You know, I am not in a habit of asking questions on latest clinical trials or treatment guidelines," I went on with my confession, "As a result, I tend to focus on physiological, or, really, philosophical questions, in which most new generation doctors have not much interest. As a matter of fact, many just think those questions are kind of a cool knowledge!"

"But I can understand why your trainees have such a feeling. After all, what's the point of focusing on physiology rather than actual clinical practice?"

"I'm not ignoring clinical practice, just that I don't think clinical trials and treatment guidelines are important - I must admit my view is not shared by most of the others." I said slowly, "In my opinion, published evidence keeps evolving when new data appear, and treatment guidelines are often revised even more quickly because of economical or political influence. There is little point to be able to remember all these because the information is probably outdated by the time it is memorized. On the other hand, physiology does not change and is, therefore, a kind of genuine knowledge. For example, if we understand how uric acid accumulates in the kidney in 2013, I am pretty sure the mechanism remains the same 100 years later!"