A non-institutional, patient-centered educational plan would produce an abundant supply of compassionate, innovative, prevention-oriented doctors at an extremely low cost. Additionally, the pace of medical research would be sharply accelerated.
Conservatively speaking, there are thousands of people with chronic illnesses who have educated themselves about their conditions via the internet. They quickly managed to become more familiar with their diseases than the physicians who treat them.
In past centuries humans have been at the mercy of all kinds of bacteria, viruses and other icky stuff. Here is a list of famous human pandemics, and how the diseases responsible would be handled today.