It likely sounds like a rare condition for you and your family members but that particular example happens to be something regularly discussed in first year medical school courses. See [1] for a discussion of how common this is.<p>Also consider that a family practitioner might easily have 2,000 patients. Thus, she or he will likely have direct experience with diverticulitis.<p>Further (and this is more inside baseball), your family members would need to be admitted to a hospital if their disease worsens to the point that a standard course of antibiotics won&#x27;t help.<p>There might be better examples of &#x27;rare&#x27; conditions than this, but the point stands - for any condition where extensive domain knowledge is required, you&#x27;ll have a specialist involved.<p>Incidentally, diverticulitis is a very American disorder, likely attributable to our eating habits. You and all other readers should be sure to include fiber in your diet.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2780269&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2780269&#x2F;</a>