[mikeleeorg]

I've never seen a doctor research anything either (although I'm sure they do behind the scenes).

Yup, they do it behind the scenes. They worry that too many patients would complain and feel insecure about a doctor having to do research in front of them, since the majority of patients want to feel that their doctor is the expert on all matters of their health. If a patient feels the care he/she wasn't up to par, and there are any complications, there is generally a very high risk of a lawsuit. So to prevent that, most doctors will do research outside of the view of the patient.

To be fair, they aren't sitting at their desks pulling up Wikipedia. Their research often consists of consulting with a specialist (or multiple specialists), consulting with colleagues, and searching through the volumes of medical periodicals and databases.

Most do this not just to be thorough and careful, but also because they know they need to practice defensive medicine and, well, cover their butts in case anything goes wrong.