The Physician Versus the Scientist. An essay on differences between the medical practitioner and the biomedical researcher in their professional aims, methods, conceptual reasoning and mission.

The physician is the central figure in practical medicine. The biomedical researcher is the central figure in scientific investigation of biomedical phenomena. Both sides contribute to understanding of physiology of health and disease. In this paper, several epistemological, value-related attitudes, ethical and pragmatic differences between the two sides are outlined. Distinguished professional features stem out of differences in respective missions, education, methodology, ethical concerns and ways of reasoning. Clinical expertise is driven by benefits of the patient, whereas researcher expertise is driven by scientific curiosity towards more reliable knowledge. The eight operational and four cognitive/epistemological differences of scientific versus clinical expertise are shortly discussed. Those pairs of differences are not necessarily reducible to each other. Better understanding of these standpoints may be important for closer communications of two sides and their contributions to applicative and cognitive advancements of human physiology.