It's truly impossible for a family or internal medicine doctor to keep fully up to date with all the new research. Most just don't have the bandwidth to work full time and simultaneously fit in a second full time job reading the never-ending new research articles getting published daily.
In fact, in terms of earning their continuing education credits that they're expected to get each year, most will just attend a couple weekend conferences where if they attend classes for a couple days straight they'll earn all they need.
Many don't speak with pharma reps, so they can't get it there. It's one thing to be too busy to make time until it's absolutely necessary, but it's another to be wholly dismissive of something as potentially pertinent to his/her job. That's the main reason I'd find a new doctor, though you list some other excellent reasons. But not having an open mind and admittedly not doing research to enhance his/her knowledge base is a big red flag. Next thing you know you'll be getting subpar treatment as they hold onto drugs that have long since been surpassed by two or three generational leaps forward in efficacy and safety.
An additional reason many doctors will immediately dismiss anything a patient says is because they have plenty of iCraigs they see on a regular basis who come in demanding things after four seconds of googling, like refusing to leave without an antibiotic when the doc knows it's viral but the patient "heard from a friend" otherwise. It's gotta be exhausting.
Before you leave I'd print some things out and leave them with him on your last visit. You could say that you're leaving for the reasons you listed, of course. Or not. But handing a few journal articles to him with "the idea that CCR5 is implicated in more conditions than just HIV isn't just me, a patient, saying it. At the rate research is going, within a few years you might start to see your Mash patients and oncology patients coming back from specialists on drugs that block CCR5. Pulmonary fibrosis and Alzheimer's as well. Might want to bone up."
(But maybe don't be too harsh as he'd probably not read the articles then)
Here's two fast ones I pulled up without digging very deep:
https://aacrjournals.org/cancerres/article/79...er-and-Its
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunolo...01981/full
In fact, in terms of earning their continuing education credits that they're expected to get each year, most will just attend a couple weekend conferences where if they attend classes for a couple days straight they'll earn all they need.
Many don't speak with pharma reps, so they can't get it there. It's one thing to be too busy to make time until it's absolutely necessary, but it's another to be wholly dismissive of something as potentially pertinent to his/her job. That's the main reason I'd find a new doctor, though you list some other excellent reasons. But not having an open mind and admittedly not doing research to enhance his/her knowledge base is a big red flag. Next thing you know you'll be getting subpar treatment as they hold onto drugs that have long since been surpassed by two or three generational leaps forward in efficacy and safety.
An additional reason many doctors will immediately dismiss anything a patient says is because they have plenty of iCraigs they see on a regular basis who come in demanding things after four seconds of googling, like refusing to leave without an antibiotic when the doc knows it's viral but the patient "heard from a friend" otherwise. It's gotta be exhausting.
Before you leave I'd print some things out and leave them with him on your last visit. You could say that you're leaving for the reasons you listed, of course. Or not. But handing a few journal articles to him with "the idea that CCR5 is implicated in more conditions than just HIV isn't just me, a patient, saying it. At the rate research is going, within a few years you might start to see your Mash patients and oncology patients coming back from specialists on drugs that block CCR5. Pulmonary fibrosis and Alzheimer's as well. Might want to bone up."
(But maybe don't be too harsh as he'd probably not read the articles then)
Here's two fast ones I pulled up without digging very deep:
https://aacrjournals.org/cancerres/article/79...er-and-Its
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunolo...01981/full
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