"Study: Verteran Doctors Not Staying Current" by Sandra G. Boodman (note: you might need to register to read this article - registration is free) in today's Washington Post, reports that Harvard researchers have found that the quality of care provided to patients was inversely related to a doctor's experience and age. A 2000 study found, "that patient mortality increased by 0.5 percent for every year after a doctor graduated from medical school." The article states that some of the reasons for this can be tied to the ever increasing amount of medical information and the "inadequacy of continuing medical education (CME) to help doctors keep pace."
The article also cautions against using this study to make blanket generalizations, there are great older doctors and there are horrible young doctors (the article uses Dr. M. DeBakey - a 96 year old fabmous heart surgeon as an example of a great older doctor). As in medicine and the English language, there are exceptions to every rule.
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