Editor—With reference to Dobson's article,1 I quite like the German system [where “Dr” is an academic title, awarded for writing a thesis and sitting vivas. And you can gain more than one Dr by doing the required work]. Then we could call someone with an MD (a British one, that is, not an American one) and a PhD “Dr Dr Dr So-and-so.”
What fun. As some of the respondents on bmj.com imply, titles and status are so very important.
Competing interests: WSM is medically qualified but not practising, with PhD.
References
- 1.Dobson R. English surgeons may at last be about to become doctors. BMJ 2005;330: 1103. (14 May.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]