To extend your observation further, another challenge with older doctors is that doctors in general tend to ossify once they’re out of medical school. Their knowledge of diseases, medical techniques, and treatments gets out of date, and sometimes is superseded by new research that reverses earlier teachings.
A good example I can cite is an ophthalmologist I visited years ago. He had to have been well into his seventies. He worked with me for a good 45 minutes on the mechanical phoropter, and I ended up with the best set of prescription glasses I’ve ever had: a corrected vision of 20/15 or better. But he had none of the new technology just coming out, and I wouldn’t have necessarily trusted him to be able to diagnose most of the conditions that newer doctors can now detect.
I am approaching retirement age in a few years, and there is no doubt I am ossifying. Damn. They sent me to some high end classes to learn how to write SQL queries last year, and...I just couldn’t get my head around it. It was one of the worst educational experiences of my life. I am not clueless about these things, but I found my brain just doesn’t absorb things in the same way it used to.
I respect someone who gets older and can still do that.