Are doctors really intelligent?

Question

How about if you compare them to chemist, physicist or biologist?

Answer 1

Doctors are intelligent in what they specialize in. Just as Chemists are great at Chemistry, Physicists are great at Physics, and Biologists are great at Biology. For example, even though anesthesiologists are doctors, they aren't good surgeons. Surgeons aren't good pediatricians, they are good surgeons. So, to answer your question, yes, doctors are smart, they are just mostly focused on one field.

Answer 2

Doctors basically deal with people directly. It is their responsibility to diagnose correctly, make decisions on their feet and deal with people...and all that they do results in life or death. Hence I think, a doctor needs to not only possess academic intelligence, but also social and emotional intelligence which might not be as needed in a chemist, physicist or biologist. Therefore, I think doctors are more "all-rounded" in their intelligence...at least the good ones are!

Answer 3

I have worked with doctors for the last 30 years as a radiologic technologist. I have come to respect their ability to remember information and apply that correctly in patient care. Yes, they are very intelligent. All of them? No. I have known a few who I would trust to give me an asprin.

One ER doctor recently diagnosed me as having cellulitis because I told him that was my diagnosis of my condition. Upon seeing my doctor the next day, he correctly diagnosed and treated me for Shingles. The ER doctor was an idiot in my opinion but he was smart enough to graduate college, medical school and his internship. That requires more intelligence than I have.

Most of the doctors I have worked with in general are very intelligent but that does not mean they know how to program a computer or change an oxygen sensor in an automobile. Being a doctor does not mean you automatically know how to operate a nuclear power plant or design a skyscraper. Most doctors will admit they are only good at what they know. Those who won't are meglomaniacs. I would not want a biologist performing gallbladder surgery on me or a chemist prescribing a drug for me to take.

Answer 4

How do you define intelligence? That's far from a trivial question.
Medical schools don't accept dummies, but somebody with smarts not much above average who has the right personality, work habits, and ethics can be a great clinician. Geniuses who lack those qualities may stink in patient care. And no matter how bright a doctor is, if it's 3 am on his umpteenth hard shift, he's working on instinct (and maybe some caffeine), which surprisingly may be pretty good!

Answer 5

All MD's require a certain level of intelligence that can usually be perceived as "bright" at the very least to most of those with average intelligence.

There is still variation within this group though, as in every other profession, including those you mentioned.

Some MD's are geniuses but lack passion. Thus, they may be poor doctors. Still others are merely "bright" but are creative, innovative, and insightful. They are in tune with patients and thus work hard, making excellent doctors. There is every other combo imaginable.

As people who become MD's need to study all of the areas you mentioned prior to attending medical school, and do extremely well in these subjects, this question answers itself. They need to be at least as intelligent as those in the other fields on average, although there is always some natural variation. More so, they need to excel in ALL of these areas on a basic level, at least.

The average IQ needed to become an MD is around 130 or so. Not genius level, but most average people would consider someone in this level "bright" after talking with them.

Of course, you can become an MD with an IQ of 120, but it will be that much harder to learn the massive amounts of material and you still need to excel in quick thinking and analytical skills.

I would have to say that yes, most doctors are intelligent, although there are cases in which you wonder how they got through medical school. They may have fluid book smart intelligence, but are not gifted in the art of medicine or the science of biology.

Answer 6

Doctors have to diagnose on a daily basis. That is they have to apply the logic reasoning to discover what is happening in a human being. Yes, they are or become intelligent, they need to be and they practice daily. This aside from the volume of information they have to keep in mind to do a diagnose and to prescribe a treatment. And yes, usually they are more practical than other scientists, since their mistakes come back and sue them or die...

An example of a smart doctor is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who imprinted the logic of medicine into his famous character Sherlock Holmes.

Answer 7

You have to be pretty intelligent to pass the test to become a doctor. After they spent all those years in college, it would seem that they would have gained some intelligence along the way.

Answer 8

Everyone has their own good place, doctor good in biology, chemist good in chemistry, physicist good in physics...... You can't judge a person's intelligence by his/her job.

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

Are doctors really intelligent...
Let me ask you.. Do you think it is intelligent to work with sick people every day. People with communicable diseases, who stink, who are covered in horrible pustules, with horrible growths, who are about the size of a mountain, when mostly you get to see lots and lots of people dying or covered in blood and gunshot wounds, who are suffering from mental illnesses, who are way off their faces on booze and drugs? I don't know.. Would an intellgent person really chose this line of work?????