I don't think this a fair analogy, or that it plausibly explains the wage gap between programmers and doctors. I'm sure doctors discuss the merits of different medical techniques at conferences. In a similar "emergency" situation (e.g. customer demands bug fixed by tomorrow) I have not see anyone agonize over the right tool for the job. In both industries there is a time and place to discuss best practices and how we can improve them. I admit that the programming world seems to have these discussions more frequently.