My cousin's a doctor. He once got a call for a patient he was covering while we were out to dinner. He listened intently, made his recommendation, and hung up. My mom was amazed at how brilliant he must be, to know what to do for a patient that wasn't his, with no charts to refer to. He just shrugged. "Most of the time they get better by themselves. We just try to help them feel better while they're doing it." That's the dirty secret of modern medicine -- we don't really need them for most things. (Acute interventions, yes, obviously, like your friend's broken finger.)