In article , "CatNipped"
wrote:

"Howard Berkowitz" wrote in message
...
Well, let me put it this way -- I'm not a physician, but I simulate
them
on computers. I manage to be underemployed both in network engineering
and clinical computing! I'm more published in network engineering, but
medicine has been a lifelong interest. Some of my projects include
expert systems that try to put the "doc into the box," so I have to get
into the fundamental medical science, not just this pill does that.

That's awesome - and totally fascinating. What a great way to make a
living! From your notes to the group I can tell you're very good at it,
I
would have sworn you were an MD (in fact you seemed to know more about
some
of the medications I was taking than my doctor did!).

One of my wiser physicians, a highly regarded cardiologist, suggests
that I know more about the combination of the dozen or so drugs that I
take than almost any physician -- because I've had more incentive to
study their interactions, read obscure papers, etc., than any regular
practitioner would have for that specific combination. We also agree
that when someone is taking ten or more drugs, nobody really knows what
they are doing to each other.

In some respects, understanding drugs has become easier in the last
15-20 years, as long as people -- doctors or educated laymen -- will do
the homework to understand how they work at a molecular basis. Prior to
some of the more recent theory, doctors had to memorize huge texts about
drugs, but still really didn't know WHY things behaved the way they do.
I have the greatest of respect for physicians that didn't learn this
background in medical school, but have made the effort to master it.
Some specialties get more into drugs than others -- it's a running joke
that orthopedists are very highly paid plasterers and carpenters.