I'm starting to think that you are thinking of a scientist differently from what I am thinking of as a scientist. A scientist answers questions about how the world works that were previously unanswered. I do not want a doctor doing things that are not know whether or not they work (if it was know, it wouldn't be science!). I want a doctor fixing people, and I call someone who fixes things a technician.
Like I've said and others have also pointed out, being a doctor doesn't preclude also being a scientist eg. in the sense of being someone who conducts research. Never mind that much of clinical medicine relies on hypothesis-driven investigation as well.
A doctor that doesn't have a thorough understanding of the science of medicine can be severely impaired in his clinical work because it will be more difficult for him to appropriately assess his patients and find the best possible treatments. Just because a treatment has been approved doesn't mean it's right for your patient, and getting a good idea of when it may be inappropriate or just uncertain requires having an understanding of the science behind the treatment as well as of what the clinical research has shown.
Also, all technicians are fellow human beings. McDonald's burger flippers are fellow human beings. Not all of them are compassionate, but neither are all doctors compassionate.
At the same time, providing that kind of support is not a required part of the job of a McDonald's burger-flipper, while it is often central to the job of a practicing physician, eg. any primary care physician. You're right, not all doctors are compassionate, but nor am I talking about all doctors.
Finally, in the above, I mean medical doctors. I just didn't want to keep differentiating between them and other doctors.
Yes, I am also talking about medical doctors.
Isn't his point more that medical doctors are often also involved in research, and can thereby be correctly defined as scientists? Hospitals have research wings too.
This, and also:
I was about to use a mechanic as an example, but I figured that might not go over so well, since I was already pretty down on doctors. The mechanic knows that the parts fit together and knows that the combustion happens in the cylinder to make it expand. The mechanic does not know why combustion happens or why it causes the cylinder to expand, or even why it causes the engine to heat up. Speaking of heating up, the mechanic knows that the radiator gets heat away from the engine, but the mechanic does not know that the reason radiators exist is because convection is a far superior way of transferring heat than conduction.
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It's rare. Most doctors do their job and go home. Occasionally you get someone who's involved on the clinical side of a trial, but that person is usually just a data-taker. The actual science is being done by someone else. Now, this is based on personal experience, so I've not met a medical doctor who does science, but that also means they're on the rare side.
Doctors doing research are pretty common here. If you were to see research as a second specialty then it would probably be among the most common specialities in Sweden. I think the percentage of doctors actively doing research in the US is something like 2% of the entire pool, so I guess you're right in that it's pretty rare where you are (although I'm guessing comparable to some of the rarer specialties?). That's unfortunate for you guys, I'd say. Last I heard, the total number of physicians actively doing research in the US has been more or less constant for a couple of decades, even though the pool of physicians has grown much larger... that's crazy.
I think it might be more informative to look at the prevalence of physicians among people working with medical research.
EDIT: As for your examples with mechanics and their knowledge... here I thought we were talking about understanding and about method rather than about knowledge. The average microbiologist would probably be on the same level as that mechanic wrt his knowledge of the merits of conduction and convection, but he could still be a scientist doing research in microbiology.
