There is a difference between seeing Taylor Swift perform on her next tour in a stadium and going to an educational and scientific conference related to medical (or dental) procedures.
The problem we have at present is that the differences between these two pursuits seem to be coming blurred at the edges.
I recently heard a story where one dental speaker who travelled from the United States to England to speak for one day was paid £50,000 (plus first-class flights).
I'm sure the speaker was incredible, and their lifetime work is extraordinary, but that does not raise the bar for most people watching.
The problem for the people watching is that they exist in the 80% of the competency curve, and (almost certainly) the £50,000 a day individual is right at the far end of the exceptional curve.
The problem with exceptional curve people teaching '80 percenters' is that us 80 percenters can't really do what the guy at the other end does.
I've understood this for many years and, in fact, used it as the foundation of our own educational system at The Campbell Academy.
Exceptional people shouldn't really teach normal people because they don't understand why they can't do what exceptional people do.
This would be a point hardly worth discussing were it not for the fact that the vast majority of all healthcare work is carried out by people in the 80%.
By definition, people in the exceptional end of the curve see fewer patients. They spend more time and attention on those patients, they photograph them more, and they charge more. They're often the type of dentist who sees one or two patients daily.
At the other end of the spectrum, the guy further down the graph, maybe towards 30% to 40%, is seeing many more patients and impacting (positively or negatively) many more lives.
The thing about the big world congresses now is that the speakers have become so expensive and famous. They're treated with such deference and high regard that everybody is now involved in a negative feedback loop that they can't get out of, worshipping the guys on stage while at the same time becoming disenfranchised, disillusioned and disheartened by the fact that they can't replicate the work.
It's one of the reasons why there has been an explosion of education on YouTube, where people can post their own stuff (if they dare), which is more normal and more associated with the real world.
I'm all for being inspired by somebody brilliant, but if I turn to them for teaching or education, it has to be something that I can take back to my own clinic, my own surgery, and my own work on Monday.
Otherwise, all we're doing is paying money to fly somewhere else, see the dental equivalent of Taylor Swift, get drunk with our mates, and then come home.
There's nothing wrong with that.
It's all good if it feeds your soul, but let's not mix it up with education.
Blog Post Number - 3514
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