Medicine is not just a science to be learnt once; it is an unending process of learning. Having a scientific temper entails the interest in continuing medical education, which is the only way to be up to date to knowledge of your own practice. Medical professionals need constant thinking, trying new ideas and approaches and checking their validity, Willingness to keep learning daily.

 

The medical curriculum in India is designed to give comprehensive knowledge of health care delivery. However it fails to do so. One of the reasons is the quality of reading the students do. Most reading and training of our students is through text books and evaluation is based on the knowledge acquired from these text books. A few years ago the text books that were recommended and read were richer, with a wider scope, books that dealt with concepts rather than brief summaries (that are designed to be memorized for reproducing in exams). The subjects themselves are very vast and sometimes students may find it difficult to comprehend books by western authors. Very few students actually visit libraries to do literature search or read scientific journals or reference books. On the other hand, reading rooms are overcrowded particularly when exams are due.  

 

Most readers of medical journals don't read original articles. They may scan the abstract, but it is the rarest of beasts who reads an article from beginning to end, critically appraising it as he or she goes. Indeed, most doctors are incapable of critically appraising an article. They have never been trained to do so.

 

On the other hand a doctor may be in a primary care setting with minimal infrastructure, leave alone facilities for hard core research, but if he thinks and acts with a scientific temper, he does qualify to be a scientist.