Actually, what you said made sense. I forgot that another city opened a 'branch' of their hospital research stuff here in our city, and they do consultations and treatments. It's mostly for their children's programs, or was at first, so I keep forgetting they are there. But I suppose they would give doctors some of the same information and training. Still, in an area like mine, doctors would end up doing a lot of their own research and continuing education, and therefore still come to some independent conclusions. I forget they exist because when I did use that place for a second opinion, I still had to drive to the other city, but that was quite a few years ago. Wonder how it works now... hm. Probably still have to drive, to find the specialists. (We would have gone anyway, as we had a young friend in the hospital there also with cancer, so we combined it with a visit to her, which she enjoyed. And since we have three major cities within about six hours, lots of folks do drive to other places ... I can't, as I get very ill from travel, but many do. We have great doctors locally though, and getting better every day, so that helps.)