Why do athletes when they get injured travel around the world to go to see a specific doctor, aren’t all doctors able to study specialists to learn the best techniques?

Question

Always hear of athletes based in UK or US for example travelling to Spain or other countries to get surgery.

In: Other

Answer 1

Medical school and residency only teach you the basics to treat the most common diseases. The more cutting edge or obscure knowledge in a field takes years of specialty education, self directed learning, keeping up with latest developments, and connections to know about. Even then some doctors have more experience, better clinical judgment, are more perceptive, have better bedside manner, etc, that make them preferable to others.